When Intelligence Becomes a Commodity
Techstrong.ai, Monday, June 15th, 2026
As AI pricing pressures mount, intelligence may shift from a scarce product to commodity infrastructure.
The article examines how AI is entering a commoditization phase similar to electricity, telecommunications, and cloud computing.
As OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to compete on price, the author argues the greatest economic opportunity may shift from AI model creators to companies building applications and platforms atop cheap inference.
The piece explores three potential futures: intelligence becoming abundant infrastructure that enables new industries, frontier companies moving up the stack to capture more value, or governments regulating AI as critical infrastructure.
The tension between utility economics and shareholder expectations of unlimited growth could shape the next decade of AI development.