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TopicsTraining compute trends Artificial intelligence

The most expensive ML training run in 2021 cost less than 45 million dollars in compute.

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I am 70% confident that the most expensive ML training run that occurred in 2021 cost at least one OOM lower (i.e., less than $45 million) in compute.

https://epoch.ai/blog/trends-in-the-dollar-training-cost-of-machine-learning-systemsextraction 0.80

Lohn & Musser seem to project an estimated 3.4 month compute doubling time from 2018–2019 into 2021, to get a cost of $450 million. I think this estimate is too high for the actual cost.

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Created by extractor · Aug 11, 2026. Every judgment on this page is accompanied by a reasoning trace.