OpenAI is gaining on Anthropic with business users, new data indicates

New data from corporate spend management firm Ramp suggests a significant shift in the enterprise AI landscape, with OpenAI beginning to regain ground on rival Anthropic. After losing its lead among Ramp's U.S. business customers in May, OpenAI is now reportedly seeing faster growth in the third quarter to date. This reversal highlights the intense and fluid competition for enterprise AI spending, where market leadership can change with each new model release.

By the Numbers

According to Ramp's data, which tracks spending from over 70,000 American businesses, Anthropic captured the lead in May and held it through July with nearly 44% market share compared to OpenAI's 40%. However, early Q3 trends indicate OpenAI's growth rate is now outpacing Anthropic's. This dynamic is influenced by factors such as model performance, pricing, and enterprise policies, including Anthropic's 30-day data retention requirement for some services, which has caused concern among some users.

• July Market Share: Anthropic held ~44% to OpenAI's ~40%.
• Previous Shift: Anthropic first overtook OpenAI in May (41% vs. 39%).
• Data Scope: Covers 70,000+ U.S. businesses, but skews toward the tech sector and excludes some large enterprises.
• Overall Market Growth: The percentage of Ramp customers paying for AI services grew from 50% in March to nearly 56% in July.

This volatility suggests that enterprise AI spending is far from 'sticky.' Businesses appear willing to switch providers based on the performance and pricing of the latest models, rather than committing to a single ecosystem. While both OpenAI and Anthropic are benefiting from an expanding overall market, this constant back-and-forth for market share signals that sustained dominance is not guaranteed. The race is less about establishing a permanent moat and more about consistently delivering superior performance in a rapidly evolving field.

The willingness of businesses to switch between OpenAI and Anthropic based on model releases indicates that the enterprise AI market is not a winner-take-all platform play. Instead, it's a feature-level battleground where customer loyalty is provisional and must be re-earned with each product cycle.