--- title: "Soaring Costs Force a Pivot: Microsoft Considers Replacing Expensive US AI Models with DeepSeek" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/289997512.md" description: "Microsoft is considering integrating DeepSeek V4 into its enterprise AI tool, Copilot Cowork, to replace more expensive models from OpenAI and Anthropic, with a decision expected within weeks. Goldman Sachs recently raised a key question: Are lower intelligence costs creating demand or destroying pricing power? Microsoft appears to have already \"voted with its feet.\"" datetime: "2026-06-17T04:11:45.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/289997512.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/289997512.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/289997512.md) --- # Soaring Costs Force a Pivot: Microsoft Considers Replacing Expensive US AI Models with DeepSeek Microsoft is considering introducing a fine-tuned version of the Chinese open-source model DeepSeek V4 into its enterprise AI tool, Copilot Cowork, as a low-cost alternative to models from OpenAI and Anthropic. According to Axios, Microsoft expects to finalize and announce its decision within the next few weeks. This news closely aligns with the core proposition recently raised by Rich Privorotsky, head of the Delta-One trading desk at Goldman Sachs, who described the current pricing dilemma in the AI industry as a **“trillion-dollar question”: Are lower intelligence costs creating demand, or are they destroying pricing power?** **On this issue, Microsoft seems to have already “voted with its feet.”** Data corroborates this trend: the Silicon Data Token Index, which tracks AI token prices, has fallen in 12 of the last 13 trading sessions, heading toward recent lows. ## Why Is Microsoft Switching Models? Cost Pressure Has Become Unmanageable Microsoft’s Copilot Cowork previously offered enterprise users unlimited access, but this approach is no longer sustainable. Charles Lamanna, Executive Vice President in charge of the Copilot business at Microsoft, stated bluntly: "Some users complete hundreds of tasks per week with high efficiency—but the cost can skyrocket." In response, Microsoft announced it would switch Copilot Cowork to a usage-based billing model tied to computational volume. Meanwhile, the company is exploring the introduction of a fine-tuned version of DeepSeek V4 or other open-source models to significantly reduce model invocation costs. The logic behind this is simple: Chinese models are cheap, while US models are expensive. Token pricing data reveals a significant gap between Chinese and US models in terms of input/output pricing. ## “Half the Price to Match Top-Tier Models” – Goldman Sachs Raises the “Trillion-Dollar Question” Citing the latest experimental results from OpenRouter, Goldman Sachs noted that a multi-model combination consisting of Gemini 3 Flash, Kimi K2.6, and DeepSeek V4 Pro outperformed standalone GPT-5.5 and Opus 4.8 in benchmark tests. Furthermore, it narrowed the performance gap to less than 1% compared to Fable 5 at approximately half the cost. Privorotsky from Goldman Sachs characterized this result as a "direction the market has consistently underestimated." The market implications of this trend are twofold. Bullish logic: Lower costs and reduced barriers should ultimately drive simultaneous expansion in AI usage and computing power demand. Bearish logic: This directly accelerates token deflation, undermining the sustainability of existing model economics. Privorotsky distilled the core contradiction into one question: **"Does lower intelligence cost create more demand, or does it destroy more pricing power?" He referred to this as the "trillion-dollar question."** ## Is Cheap AI a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? The Real Impact: Does the Logic Behind Trillions in Capital Expenditure Still Hold? Microsoft’s choice impacts the market far beyond a single company switching suppliers. Over the past two years, tech giants have invested or committed to investing massive amounts of capital expenditure. One of the core assumptions behind this was that enterprise customers would continue to purchase high-priced, top-tier US AI models, generating enough revenue to support these investments. However, if even Microsoft itself— **OpenAI’s largest investor and partner**—starts finding OpenAI too expensive and turns to consider Chinese open-source models, the foundation of this assumption begins to crumble. Axios also pointed out that **since the controversy over "token prices hitting record highs" intensified, the Silicon Data Token Index has fallen in 12 of the last 13 trading sessions, sending a clear signal that the market is voting with its feet.** Microsoft’s multi-model strategy also reflects a broader industry shift—no longer betting on a single supplier, but flexibly allocating models based on task complexity and cost. 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