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Uber president says AI spending is getting 'harder to justify'

theverge.com

May 26, 2026

1 min read

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62/100

Summary

Uber has exhausted its annual AI budget four months into 2026 and is questioning the returns on its investments. The company's president, Andrew Macdonald, stated there is no clear connection between increased token consumption for Claude Code and the delivery of more useful features to consumers.

Key Takeaways

Uber exhausted its annual AI budget just four months into 2026, raising concerns about the effectiveness of its investments.
Uber president Andrew Macdonald stated there is no clear connection between AI usage and productivity or the delivery of useful consumer features.
In 2025, Uber spent $3.4 billion on research and development, a 9% increase from the previous year.
Uber plans to reduce human hiring to offset rising AI investment costs, emphasizing the need to evaluate the cost of token consumption against headcount.

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Community Sentiment

Mixed

Positives

AI coding tools have the potential to significantly accelerate feature development, as evidenced by a team completing extensive UI tests in just a week with AI assistance.
The ability to iterate faster on features through AI could lead to more informed decisions about user preferences, enhancing overall product development.

Concerns

The sustainability of AI spending is questionable, as companies struggle to demonstrate tangible productivity improvements in quarterly results.
There is skepticism about whether increased code output will translate to actual revenue growth, especially for mature applications like Uber's.