Rising Barriers to Frontier Model Training
willccbb · x · 2026-07-17
A post discusses the rising cost barriers for training frontier models. - Six months ago, the largest known model with an "all-in cost under $20 million" was arcee's 400B-A13B Trinity Large. - Theoretical limits have now increased about 10x, but new labs aiming for a similar scale with lower risk often need to raise **over $100 million**. - A reply adds: training a **5T-A100B / 50T tokens** model on GB300 costs about **$10 million** for the hero run alone, and adding RL could double that. - Conclusion: Globally, there may only be a few thousand companies capable of sustaining this level of investment.
Related event: Frontier Model Training Costs Skyrocket to Tens of Millions(3 posts)→
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