No, or OpenAI etc would be profitable. I believe they're all heavily subsidized by investors right now in a race to cement the first-mover advantage.
Now if they had their own llama instance or similar that they're doing on their own machines, that would be closer to the true cost? But I doubt that quality is sufficient, or can keep up with the latest training.
It's possible the unit economics might not be that bad. It's just that they're paying people a lot. Every one of FAANG were criticized for burning money, now they're some of the most profitable companies in the world, first mover or not. AI is a little weird in that OpenAI just vastly accelerated competitors.
The true cost for OpenAI includes almost a decade of salaries and office space for employees, since before covid, along with a very hefty training bill. Even if inference were free for them, it'll take a while before they're profitable.
That must've been a wild time to be working there. Imagine going to work thinking one day in a few short years it's going to become one of the world's most important companies. I'd be walking back from lunch thinking "oh man, oh man..." the whole time, lol.
And then to actually see it all actually happen, rise to the top, only for a failed coup to almost dismantle your organization, and then to survive THAT and keep going. Must've been nuts. I hope some of them write a memoir about it later.
Now if they had their own llama instance or similar that they're doing on their own machines, that would be closer to the true cost? But I doubt that quality is sufficient, or can keep up with the latest training.