Ramp data: Anthropic is capturing ~73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, up from a 50/50 split with OpenAI in January
Anthropic is now capturing over 73% of all spending among companies buying AI tools for the first time, according to customer data from Ramp.
Context & Ripple Effects
Ramp's measure is specifically spending by companies purchasing AI tools for the first time, making it an early-procurement signal rather than a measure of the entire enterprise AI market. The move from an even split in January to Anthropic taking roughly 73% of this cohort suggests the two vendors' new-customer momentum is diverging.
The signal fits later coverage in which Anthropic's paid-business presence rose in Ramp data while OpenAI's was nearly flat, followed by reports that more Ramp customers used Anthropic than OpenAI. Together, those observations matter because new-tool selection can shape subsequent vendor standardization.
First-order effects
- Anthropic gains a disproportionate share of spending from Ramp-tracked companies entering the AI-tools market, while OpenAI receives a smaller share of that new-buyer spend.
- For procurement teams in this cohort, Anthropic becomes the more frequently selected initial vendor in Ramp's data; the finding does not establish broader market share.
Second-order effects
- OpenAI faces greater pressure to improve its conversion of first-time business buyers, while Anthropic has more opportunities to turn initial purchases into wider organizational deployments.
- A widening lead in new procurement can reinforce vendor distribution: implementation partners, internal champions, and adjacent tool vendors may prioritize the platform customers are selecting first.
Third-order effects
- If repeated across broader datasets, enterprise AI could move from a two-vendor race defined by overall adoption to one increasingly determined by control of new procurement cohorts and later expansion within accounts.
- The relevant competitive question will increasingly be whether vendors can sustain usage and renewal after the initial purchase, not merely win a first AI-tool budget.
The trend: Enterprise AI competition is shifting toward winning the first procurement decision, where early vendor choice can compound into distribution and account-expansion advantages.