Mythos, Muse, and the Opportunity Cost of Compute

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TLDR

  • Aggregation Theory holds under compute scarcity: controlling demand still grants leverage over constrained supply.

Key Takeaways

  • The core argument extends Ben Thompson’s Aggregation Theory into an era where compute is the scarce, rivalrous resource.
  • Demand-side aggregators retain structural power even when supply (compute) is limited, not abundant.
  • Compute constraints introduce opportunity costs that reshape which players can extract value from AI infrastructure.
  • Controlling where attention and demand flow may determine who gets prioritized access to scarce compute capacity.

Why It Matters

  • If compute remains constrained, demand aggregators (not model providers) may hold durable pricing and allocation power.
  • Founders building on top of AI infrastructure face a structural question: who controls demand, and therefore who controls their access to compute.
  • The opportunity cost framing reframes AI competition away from model quality toward resource allocation and demand leverage.

Stratechery · 2026-04-13 · Read the original