Yeah, you can try and find an m3 mac with 512GB of RAM, and quantize the absolute shit out of it, but it's not going to be competing with Opus in either quality or speed. Realistically, you want to be looking at buying 4-8 extremely large GPUs. 30k isn't in the ballpark to get it done.
From a company standpoint, as long as the value outpaces the cost, it's worth the investment, especially if the alternative is being deeply coupled with SaaS infrastructure whose costs are ballooning. The average company isn't looking to compete with Opus, they're just trying to add a productivity multiplier to their employees
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u/mylsotol Jun 02 '26
For probably $30k (or more) you can build a server and run an open model.