Corporate IT budgets are expanding rapidly as the cost of artificial intelligence begins to exceed human labor expenses, according to a report by Axios.
Some companies are now allocating more capital to AI compute and token usage than to employee salaries. Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of applied deep learning at Nvidia, told Axios, "For my team, the cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees."
Uber's chief technology officer has already exhausted his full 2026 AI budget due to high token costs, The Information reported.
Amos Bar-Joseph, CEO of Swan AI, recently highlighted the shift on LinkedIn, stating the company is "building the first autonomous business - scaling with intelligence, not headcount."
The surge in global IT spending
Global IT spending is projected to hit $6.31 trillion in 2026, representing a 13.5% increase from 2025, according to Gartner. This growth is driven by sustained momentum in AI software, cloud services, and infrastructure buildouts.
As companies scale AI subscriptions, the financial pressure to prove returns on investment is mounting. Shareholders are increasingly looking for metrics that demonstrate clear productivity gains from these massive investments.
Brad Owens, vice president of digital labor strategy at Asymbl, noted a fundamental shift in how companies evaluate workforce value. "The tone is shifting a bit more into what is the true value of a worker... human or digital?" Owens said.
Rising costs are also reshaping the competitive landscape among major AI labs. An OpenAI investor told Axios that the company's Codex could provide a competitive edge by maximizing tokens more efficiently than competitors like Anthropic's Claude Code.
Anthropic has already adjusted its pricing structures to manage a significant spike in user demand. Industry observers suggest that if AI labs continue to raise prices, high-scale AI integration could shift from a strategic advantage to a financial liability.
