Google just put $40B into Anthropic. Here's why I'm not changing my $2/month AI setup.

Google is investing up to $40 billion into Anthropic. Bloomberg confirmed it. That's more than most countries spend on education in a year.

And I genuinely don't care.

Not because it isn't significant — it is. But because I made a decision 6 months ago that insulates me from exactly this kind of news.

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The money trail always ends at your invoice

Here's how big tech investment works:

1. Corporate A invests $40B into AI company B
2. Corporate A now has board seats, revenue expectations, ROI targets
3. AI company B needs to generate returns
4. Prices go up. Features get paywalled. Terms change.

This isn't cynicism. It's how every software company that took institutional money eventually behaved.

Remember when GitHub was indie? Microsoft bought it for $7.5B in 2018. Copilot is now $10-19/month.

Remember when Cursor was just a cool editor? SpaceX reportedly acquired it. Same pattern, incoming.

Google is Anthropic's largest investor now. Google also has Google Gemini. These are not separate business units — they're competing products under the same investor's portfolio.

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What $40B buys Google

At minimum, influence over:

• Model training priorities
• API pricing decisions
• Which regions get access
• Which enterprise features get built vs. which consumer features get cut

None of these decisions are made with you in mind. They're made with Google's ROI in mind.

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What I actually run

I route my Claude API calls through SimplyLouie — a flat-rate wrapper that charges $2/month regardless of what Google, Anthropic, or any investor decides to do with their pricing.

Here's the setup:

curl https://simplylouie.com/api/chat \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Explain this like I'm a developer"}]
  }'

That's it. Same call tomorrow, same call next year, same price.

Or in Node.js:

const response = await fetch('https://simplylouie.com/api/chat', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.LOUIE_TOKEN}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: prompt }]
  })
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.content);

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The structural argument

The problem with per-token pricing isn't the current price. It's that the price is variable and controlled by entities with interests different from yours.

When ChatGPT launched, it was free. Then it was $20/month. Then it was $20/month + usage limits + a $200/month Pro tier for "power users." Each step was justified by investor pressure.

Flat-rate means:

• No surprise bills when you build something that gets traction
• No pricing anxiety when you're testing a new feature
• No invoice shock when a viral post sends traffic to your AI endpoint

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The actual question

Google's $40B doesn't make Claude worse. The model quality doesn't change overnight.

But it does change the incentive structure. And incentive structures always eventually show up in pricing.

So: does your current AI setup depend on a company making decisions in your interest, or does it depend on fixed infrastructure you control?

For me, that question got simple a long time ago.

7-day free trial, no card required → simplylouie.com

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What's your take on the Google-Anthropic deal? Bullish for developers, or another step toward centralized AI infrastructure? Discussion below.