a16z: agents burn nearly 5x the tokens humans do, up 14x since February
a16z · x · 2026-08-23
a16z's latest "Charts of the Week" highlights a striking data point: humans are now the minority user of AI by token consumption — agents burn nearly 5x the tokens people do, up 14x since February.
The piece also covers several thematic shifts:
- ETF rotation: the top 5 ETF themes in 2020 (clean energy, emerging markets tech, healthcare) have given way to AI, Nuclear, Space, Defense and Infrastructure by 2026 — capital flowing to the capital-intensive world of atoms over bits.
- Data center jobs: data centers are a blue-collar employment bonanza.
- Ridesharing: data confirms ridesharing really is more expensive.
More from AGI Musings
- AI Deep Adapts to PC: From 1-Day Learning to 1-Week Dependency — debreuil · 2026-08-23
- AI acts as a multiplier for the best, not an equalizer for all — Yuchenj_UW · 2026-08-23
- AI for material science will surprise everyone in the next 2 years — AndrewCritchPhD · 2026-08-23
- Frontier AI has an epistemological problem requiring expert grounding — gerardsans · 2026-08-23
- Biological intelligence requires embodiment, but abstract intelligence does not — memoakten · 2026-08-23
- AI is everywhere in corporate Australia except the P&L, says AFR — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-08-23