API pricing rates probably. If I take a look at my current usage since it came out, it'd be about $12000 CAD if paid at API rates. Ridiculously easy to rack up absurd bills via the API, and I'm mostly just using it for code review. Someone using it heavily could easily, easily get way over 70k.

Also the statement was "We". It's not a single user's billable usage and we have zero details as to how many people made up "We". So any analysis into the cost or value are meaningless.

Why did they not buy a subscription? It would be a flat fee.

At that spend, no subscription is available to serve that much traffic - they are all rate limited.

I understand the 70K spend as a corporate expense, not an individual... right?

I haven't checked but it would make sense if each developer had their own rate limit.