For months, Silicon Valley was caught up in 'tokenmaxxing'—the aggressive push to use AI as much as possible. But the bill came due. According to TechCrunch, companies like Uber that embraced AI tools are now staring down massive expenses. Uber burned through its entire annual AI budget in just a few months. Other companies, including Meta, are pulling back—cutting Claude subscriptions or canceling internal AI initiatives. As NEA investor Tiffany Luck notes, enterprises are grappling with a hard question: does any of this actually deliver a return? The takeaway: aggressive AI adoption looks great until the invoice arrives.

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