OpenAI算力账单曝光：70亿美元支出，大部分钱花在了“看不见的实验”

Core Insights - OpenAI's total spending on computing resources reached $7 billion last year, primarily for research and experimental runs rather than final training of popular models [1][3][20] - A significant portion of the $5 billion allocated for R&D compute was not used for the final training of models like GPT-4.5, but rather for behind-the-scenes research and various experimental runs [6][18] Spending Breakdown - Of the $7 billion, approximately $5 billion was dedicated to R&D compute, which includes all training and research activities, while around $2 billion was spent on inference compute for user-facing applications [3][5] - The R&D compute spending includes basic research, experimental runs, and unreleased models, with only a small fraction allocated to the final training of models [5][6] Model Training Costs - Researchers estimated the training costs for significant models expected to be released between Q2 2024 and Q1 2025, focusing solely on the final training runs [11][12] - For GPT-4.5, the estimated training run cost ranged from $135 million to $495 million, depending on cluster size and training duration [15] - Other models like GPT-4o and Sora Turbo were estimated using indirect methods based on floating-point operations (FLOP), with costs varying widely [17] Research Focus - The analysis indicates that a large portion of OpenAI's R&D compute in 2024 will likely be allocated to research and experimental training runs rather than directly producing public-facing products [18] - This focus on experimentation over immediate product output explains the anticipated significant losses for OpenAI in 2024, as the company spent $5 billion on R&D while generating only $3.7 billion in revenue [20][21] Power of Compute - The article emphasizes the critical importance of compute power in the AI industry, stating that whoever controls the compute resources will dominate AI [22][28] - OpenAI has engaged in substantial compute transactions, including building its own data centers to mitigate risks associated with reliance on external cloud services [22][30] - The demand for compute resources in AI development is described as having no upper limit, highlighting the competitive landscape [27][28]