The cost of artificial intelligence is climbing steeply, and some businesses are now dialing back their usage to keep expenses in check. Among them is Uber, which has recently imposed internal spending limits to rein in its sky-high AI costs. According to Bloomberg, the company has introduced a new policy capping monthly spending at $1,500 per employee for each AI-powered coding tool, such as Anthropic’s Claude Code or Cursor. Employees can monitor their usage through an internal dashboard, and in certain cases, they may exceed the cap with special approval, Uber says.

This development isn’t entirely unexpected. Back in April, Uber’s chief technology officer revealed that the ride-hailing giant had burned through its entire annual AI budget in just four months. That spending spree followed an internal push to encourage staff to use AI “as much as possible,” with the company even ranking employees’ AI usage on internal leaderboards, as previously reported by The Information. More recently, Uber CEO Andrew Macdonald expressed skepticism about AI’s direct impact on productivity, noting in a podcast appearance that “it’s very hard to draw a line” between AI usage and new features for consumers.

Uber’s pullback highlights a broader dilemma facing the tech industry: As companies pour massive sums into AI, where is the actual return on investment? So far, AI ROI remains largely a theoretical promise—something everyone hopes will eventually materialize. But some companies are clearly growing impatient while they wait.

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