Chamath Palihapitiya warns AI "tokenmaxxing" could quietly dent corporate EPS

Chamath Palihapitiya said corporate AI spending may be rising far beyond what senior management realizes, warning that companies could eventually report earnings per share that come in a few cents light without fully understanding why. Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on July 14, the Social Capital founder, 8090 CEO and All-In Podcast host said internal AI usage, which he referred to as “tokenmaxxing,” has expanded to a scale that many CEOs and CFOs likely do not see clearly. He described tokenmaxxing as a growing Silicon Valley idea in which companies explicitly push employees to use as much AI as possible under the assumption that greater AI consumption automatically translates into higher productivity. Palihapitiya said that assumption needs to be reexamined. He also pointed to his own company, saying in March that annual AI-related spending at his advisory firm 8090 was approaching $10 million, a figure he described as feeling “very scary” for a startup. ABMedia also referenced a July 13 expansion by Chain News on Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire’s paper The Agentic Economy, which discussed how AI pricing models may shift from seat-based subscriptions to work-based charging.