Open Models Hit Record 78.4% of Vercel Token Volume—Frontier Labs' Last Moat Is Brand
thealexbanks · x · 2026-09-22
Alex Banks synthesizes the open-vs-closed debate: DeepSeek's V4.1 Flash reportedly cost $10M to train, 100x less than GPT-6 Astra; open models hit a record 78.4% of token volume on Vercel's AI Gateway; OpenAI's CFO says frontier models exist to train cheaper "child models"; Chamath predicts the top 3 models go open within 12 months. The author argues the real moat is brand trust and distribution, not capability.
Related event: Open-Source Models Hit Record 78.4% of Token Volume on Vercel AI Gateway(5 posts)→
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