Only very few people have enough processing power to run a proper model.

Sure… locking your customer in is always a good business option.

But the point remains… for any given demand a big data center always is cheaper.

Cheapest doesn’t mean best for all uses cases.

Well yes, or data security or whatever.

But on a purely costs level such big data centers are cheaper… especially since they certainly getting better discounts than anyone else.

No… he actually is right. A local machine will sit idle most if the time.

A data center can balance loads globally.

In terms of resources… data centers ARE cheaper.

However … there are other reasons to use local interference that might be more important than added cost

OP knows…