Is Anthropic about to overtake OpenAI? New data suggests a major shift is underway

Anthropic is gaining ground on OpenAI in the competition for paying business customers. New data and revenue figures suggest the gap between the two leading AI companies is narrowing quickly.

According to payments company Ramp, which tracks roughly $100 billion in annual card and invoice spending from 50,000 customers, nearly one in three US businesses paid for Anthropic’s tools in March. That figure rose more than six percentage points from the previous month. OpenAI held a lead at 35 percent, but its business adoption was flat over the same period.

Anthropic announced that its annualised revenue has reached $30 billion, up from $9 billion at the end of last year. The company also said more than 1,000 business customers now spend over $1 million per year with the company, a number that has doubled in less than two months.

Much of this growth is driven by Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI-powered coding assistant, and a range of tools designed to automate parts of office-based work. Analyst firm Forrester describes the trend as a “clear shift in momentum” toward Anthropic.

OpenAI disputed the accuracy of Ramp’s figures, arguing that large enterprise contracts worth millions of dollars are not captured in Ramp’s data. Ramp’s co-founder Eric Glyman responded that his platform processes up to one percent of US GDP and that its numbers are consistent with both companies’ revenue figures.

OpenAI pointed to other metrics to argue its growth continues. The company said its AI coding agent Codex reached three million weekly users, that its APIs process more than 15 billion tokens per minute, and that its advertising pilot reached a $100 million annual run rate within six weeks. OpenAI said it did not recognise the data cited by the Financial Times.

Downloads of Anthropic’s Claude app tripled to 21 million globally in March, while ChatGPT downloads rose five percent over the same period, according to market researcher Sensor Tower. Data from Apptopia shows that ChatGPT’s weekly active users in the US fell month-on-month for the first time since early 2024.

Investor confidence in Anthropic is growing. Venture capital firms have approached Anthropic with offers valuing the company at up to $800 billion, more than double its February valuation of $380 billion, according to Business Insider. On the secondary market Caplight, Anthropic’s implied valuation has risen 75 percent in three months to $688 billion.

OpenAI’s own valuation of $852 billion is facing scrutiny from some of its backers, according to Reuters. The company has adjusted its product roadmap twice in six months in response to competitive pressure, most recently shifting its focus toward enterprise customers. One early OpenAI investor criticised the company’s direction: “You have ChatGPT, a one billion-user business growing 50 to 100 percent a year, what are you doing talking about enterprise and code?” OpenAI’s Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar said the suggestion that investors are not supportive defies the facts.

Sources: Financial Times, Business Insider, Reuters