AI tools have a cost problem. But it's not the tools

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Uber's CTO burned through the company's annual AI budget in four months.

5,000 engineers. Claude Code. An internal leaderboard ranking who uses it the most. Based on what's been reported: no cap, no cost governance. I don't know exactly how it works from the inside - all I have is the public read of the case. And that read tells me a lot about a pattern I see repeating at companies of every size.

Engineering-Management on Thiago Avelino

AI tools have a cost problem. But it's not the tools