Local AI Hardware Just Got Way More Expensive Than You Think

The DGX Spark went from $3,999 to $6,950 in a year and RAM prices went through the roof, but the model it was built to run got 57% cheaper to rent. This is the local AI hardware math almost nobody is doing. A year ago I had a spreadsheet that said buy the hardware and own your AI. I didn't buy, and that turned out to be the smartest thing I did all year. Everyone is comparing the new DGX Spark price to the old one. The real comparison is the box against the token it replaces. In October 2025, gpt-oss-120b cost 40 cents per million output tokens on OpenRouter. Today it's about 17 cents. At the