OpenAI is gaining on Anthropic with business users, new data indicates
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- OpenAI has started gaining on Anthropic among US business users on Ramp's platform, with OpenAI growing faster than Anthropic among Ramp's business customers in Q3 to date, per Ramp economist Ara Kharazian.
- Anthropic overtook OpenAI among Ramp's paying business users in May with 41% market share to OpenAI's 39%, and held nearly 44% to OpenAI's nearly 40% as of July — a lead OpenAI has never regained.
- Ramp's data covers more than 70,000 American businesses that spend billions via the company's bill pay and corporate card products, though the dataset skews toward the tech industry and excludes large enterprises using tools like American Express.
- Kharazian attributed OpenAI's renewed momentum to its 'GPT-5.6 Sol' model being 'increasingly the choice for developers,' while saying Anthropic's 'Fable 5' disappointed on adoption and real-world use due to price and regulator-imposed 30-day data retention requirements.
- Anthropic triggered outrage among Fable users when it warned them it must retain their data for 30 days, a requirement Kharazian cited as a drag on adoption.
- The overall AI market is expanding — the share of Ramp customers paying for AI topped 50% in March and reached nearly 56% by July, meaning both companies should see business revenue growth even as they fight for share.
- Ramp declined to share actual dollar figures, providing only market-share percentages, and the article notes the trend could still shift with a month left in Q3.
Why it matters: Enterprise AI spending is volatile, not sticky — the article explicitly says businesses flip-flop between OpenAI and Anthropic as each lab releases new models, a risk for both companies' pre-IPO investors betting on locked-in enterprise revenue. Meanwhile, the overall AI market is expanding fast, with the share of Ramp customers paying for AI jumping from 50% in March to nearly 56% by July, so both labs can grow revenue even while ceding share to each other.
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