AI startup Lindy ditched Claude entirely for Deepseek, saving millions as cost pressure mounts on Anthropic

AI startup Lindy replaced Anthropic's Claude with Deepseek, a Chinese model hosted in the US, saving millions as AI costs became unsustainable. CEO Flo Crivello said the cost curve 'crashed to the ground' and that switching back depends on Anthropic cutting prices. The move highlights growing cost pressure on AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI as enterprises seek cheaper alternatives.

AI startup Lindy ditched Claude entirely for Deepseek, saving millions as cost pressure mounts on Anthropic Anthropic better get moving on its IPO. OpenAI apparently already missed its optimal window and postponed https://the-decoder.com/altman-wont-go-public-for-less-than-1-trillion-so-openais-ipo-may-slip-to-2027/ . Now even Anthropic's explosive growth https://the-decoder.com/anthropics-900-billion-valuation-would-make-it-more-valuable-than-openai-for-the-first-time/ could come under pressure as companies tighten AI spending and turn to cheaper Chinese alternatives. AI startup Lindy is a case in point: CEO Flo Crivello ditched Claude entirely for Deepseek https://x.com/Altimor/status/2062389885437366342?s=20 , hosted by a US company on US soil. The cost curve "crashed to the ground," saving millions, he told CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/26/openai-anthropic-new-ai-spending-reality-as-users-shift-to-efficiency.html . AI costs for the 25-person startup had been "unsustainable," exceeding personnel costs. Crivello said he'd switch back if Anthropic cut prices: "It's a matter of survival for the business." A recent analysis by Snowflake's CTO https://the-decoder.com/snowflake-ceo-finds-glm-5-2-competitive-with-opus-4-7-at-a-fraction-of-the-cost/ showed that affordable Chinese models like GLM-5.2 https://the-decoder.com/snowflake-ceo-finds-glm-5-2-competitive-with-opus-4-7-at-a-fraction-of-the-cost/ don't quite match Claude but are competitive and easily win on the price-performance ratio depending on the task. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that AI cost became a "huge issue" https://the-decoder.com/openai-ceo-sam-altman-sees-proactive-ai-as-the-next-big-phase-after-chatbots-and-agents/ for companies with the recent switch to agentic systems burning through tokens. AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section. Subscribe now