How to shrink the token budget without shrinking the team

Jensen Huang has a test for whether an engineer is worth keeping, and it comes with a token budget attached. Speaking on the All-In Podcast at the close of GTC 2026, the Nvidia chief executive said that if a $500,000 engineer’s annual AI token consumption came in under half their salary, “I am going to be deeply alarmed.” Nvidia, he confirmed, is working toward a $2 billion yearly token bill for its engineering force.

He was describing a trade-off most companies have already made with less fanfare: money that once paid people increasingly pays for tokens. The four largest hyperscalers have guided roughly $700 billion in combined 2026 capital expenditure, nearly double last year, while data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows AI as the most-cited reason for US job cuts for a record fourth consecutive month.

An internal Meta memo obtained by Reuters described May...