Chamath Palihapitiya wants the US government to know something: if you ban open-source AI, you’re basically handing the rest of the world a competitive cheat code.
The venture capitalist and All-In podcast co-host posted on X on July 18 that the US should embrace open-source AI rather than restrict it. His core argument boils down to simple math. American companies could end up paying between $26 and $56 per million tokens for proprietary AI access, while foreign competitors using open-source models would pay roughly $0.50 to $1 for the same capability.
In English: that’s potentially a 50x cost disadvantage for US firms.
The economics of locking yourself out
Palihapitiya didn’t mince words about what he sees as the inevitable outcome of restrictive AI policy.
