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There's a lot of talk about World Cup ticket prices.

SemiAnalysis Twitter · SemiAnalysis (@SemiAnalysis_) · 2026-06-15

SemiAnalysis compares World Cup ticket prices to the per-prompt cost of Microsoft's Fable 5 'ultracode' AI model to argue that soaring frontier AI inference costs are creating a widening class divide between AI haves and have-nots.

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Topics: ai-inference-costsai-inequalityllm-economicsfrontier-ai

Claims

  • A single prompt from Microsoft's Fable 5 'ultracode' model costs more than a ticket to the USMNT's World Cup opening match.
  • High frontier AI inference costs are creating an 'AGI class' economically separated from a 'permanent underclass'.
  • The gap between those with and without access to the most capable AI is widening.

Key quotes

tickets for @USMNT's opening match cost less than we've seen Fable 5 'ultracode' spend on a single prompt, writing docs for a small internal repo.
The gap between the permanent underclass and the AGI class keeps getting [wider].