Tech giants tighten AI spending, shifting from unlimited use to strict limits

The Information reports that many US tech companies including AT&T, Meta, Uber, and Microsoft are moving from encouraging unlimited AI use (tokenmaxxing) to strict limits (tokenminimizing). Some firms previously ran leaderboards rewarding heavy users, causing costs to spiral. In 2026, facing bills of up to $7,500 per employee per month, companies are hitting the brakes. Uber burned through its full-year AI coding budget in four months and capped per-person spending at $1,500 monthly. Walmart restricted internal AI assistants, Amazon removed AI usage leaderboards, Meta cut spending on platforms like Anthropic, AT&T limited GitHub Copilot access, and Microsoft found some engineers consuming $2,000 monthly in coding tokens. To balance efficiency and cost, firms are adopting 'AI gateway' tools that route simple tasks to cheaper open-source models. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella argues for interchangeable AI architectures to prevent a few models from absorbing all enterprise value.