Anthropic gains enterprise spend
Anthropic has seen a recent surge in enterprise spending that analysts say could let it rival OpenAI on business dollars, suggesting buyers are actively comparing model providers rather than defaulting to one option. Reports cite month‑on‑month adoption growth at American businesses and notes this is shifting procurement toward platform comparisons and revenue quality metrics. (businessinsider.com)
Anthropic is rapidly closing the gap with OpenAI in paid business use, according to new spending data from Ramp. (ramp.com) Ramp said 50.4% of businesses on its platform paid for artificial intelligence products in March 2026, up from 35% a year earlier. Among those buyers, 35.2% used OpenAI and 30.6% used Anthropic, leaving a gap of 4.6 percentage points after Anthropic gained 6.3 points in a single month. (ramp.com) Ramp’s index is based on corporate card and invoiced payments, so it tracks who is paying vendors rather than who is generating chatbot traffic. Ramp economist Ara Kharazian wrote on April 11 that, at the current pace, Anthropic could overtake OpenAI on this measure within two months. (ramp.com) That changes the picture of the business market, where OpenAI had been the default name for many buyers over the past year. OpenAI said in December 2025 that more than 1 million business customers use its tools, and said on April 8 that enterprise now makes up more than 40% of its revenue. (openai.com 1) (openai.com 2) The new numbers point to a procurement fight, not a one-company lockup. Ramp’s vendor data says Anthropic ranks No. 2 in generative artificial intelligence adoption, captures 69% of new category entrants, and has the highest competitor switch rate in the category at 37%. (ramp.com) Anthropic’s gains are strongest in larger accounts. Ramp said Anthropic’s adoption rate in March was 65% among enterprise companies, 64% in mid-market firms, and 62% among small and medium-size businesses. (ramp.com) Both companies are building consulting channels to turn pilots into larger contracts. Anthropic expanded alliances with Deloitte in October 2025 and Accenture in late 2025, while OpenAI said in March 2026 that it had multi-year partnerships with Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, Accenture, and Capgemini. (anthropic.com 1) (anthropic.com 2) (openai.com) Anthropic is also putting money behind that channel push. The company said last month it would commit an initial $100 million in 2026 to its Claude Partner Network, which trains and supports firms helping customers deploy Claude in production. (anthropic.com) Ramp’s data also shows who is buying first. Venture-capital-backed companies had an 80% artificial intelligence adoption rate, compared with 64% for private-equity-backed firms and 45% for everyone else, suggesting the fastest growth is still concentrated in better-funded businesses. (ramp.com) The next test is whether Anthropic’s spending gains hold for more than a few months. If they do, enterprise buyers will look less like OpenAI loyalists and more like software customers comparing price, controls, and performance vendor by vendor. (ramp.com) (openai.com)
