Uber has begun tightening its internal AI spending. The company has set monthly caps on employee spending and some proxy programming tools in an attempt to curb rapidly rising usage costs. Previously, Uber management had admitted that the company's annual AI budget was exhausted within four months.

The spending cap has been set.

The company's new policy caps monthly AI spending on employees and tools at $1,500. Tools like Anthropic's Claude Code and Cursor are included in this limit. Employees can view usage data through an internal dashboard, and may be approved to exceed the cap in exceptional circumstances.

Budget is being consumed too quickly

In April of this year, Uber disclosed that its annual AI budget had been exhausted in just four months. Previously, the company had encouraged employees to use AI as much as possible and compared usage on internal leaderboards.

Pressure to return on high investment

Uber CEO Andrew Macdonald recently stated that it's difficult to draw a direct line between AI usage and new consumer features. This shift reflects a growing number of companies questioning the actual return on their AI investments.