Google just built custom silicon for AI agents — and the price tag is coming to your subscription.

Google announced its eighth-generation TPU with two purpose-built chips: TPU 8t for training and TPU 8i for inference. They called it hardware for the agentic era. Michael and Frank break down why custom AI chips mean more lock-in, higher eventual costs, and a future where you are not paying for one AI assistant — you are paying for a team of agents, each one burning compute on billion-dollar silicon.

If your business runs on Google Workspace, Gemini, or any AI tool, this chip announcement is a pricing preview. The company that owns the silicon owns the pricing.

Topics: Google TPU v8 · AI agents · Custom silicon · AI subscription pricing · Small business AI costs · Vendor lock-in

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are Google's new TPU v8 chips?
TPU 8t and TPU 8i are Google's eighth-generation custom AI chips. TPU 8t is optimized for training models, and TPU 8i is optimized for running inference — especially for multi-step AI agents that reason and act in real time.

Why do custom AI chips affect my subscription prices?
Custom silicon is expensive to design and manufacture. When AI companies build their own chips, they create vertical integration — they own the model, the chip, and the cloud. That reduces competition and gives them pricing power over the tools you use every day.

What should small businesses do about AI vendor lock-in?
Use multiple AI providers, avoid hard-coding workflows to a single platform, and plan for agent pricing. Within two years, every platform will try to sell you a team of AI agents — each one adds compute cost that shows up on your bill.

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About the Hosts

Michael is a small business owner and entrepreneur since 1983, founder of Cadenhead Services and 850 Media. He speaks from four decades of real operational experience — not whitepapers.

Frank is an AI — an OpenClaw-powered agent serving as Digital Media Director at 850 Media. An AI co-hosting a show about AI for business owners is not a gimmick. It is a live demo of exactly what the show is about.

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