Anthropic's Rise: A New Era for AI Tools in Business
Anthropic is now securing roughly 73% of all spending among companies purchasing AI tools for the first time, according to data from corporate expense management firm Ramp published this week — a dramatic reversal from just 10 weeks ago, when the split between Anthropic and OpenAI was evenly matched.
The findings, first reported by Axios, mark one of the sharpest shifts in enterprise technology adoption in recent memory. As recently as December, OpenAI held a commanding lead in business AI adoption, with its products used by nearly 37% of U.S. businesses on Ramp's platform compared to Anthropic's roughly 17%.
A Cultural Moment Turned Business Advantage
The turnaround traces back to late February, when Anthropic refused to remove contractual restrictions barring the Pentagon from using its Claude AI for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded by canceling Anthropic's $200 million Pentagon contract and designating the company a supply chain risk.
Rather than damaging Anthropic's business, the standoff supercharged it. Uninstalls of OpenAI's ChatGPT spiked 295% in a single day, while Claude climbed to the number one spot on Apple's App Store. Pop star Katy Perry and Senator Brian Schatz both publicly announced switching to Claude, amplifying the moment into a broader cultural signal.
Compounding OpenAI's challenges, the company began rolling out ads to free and lower-tier ChatGPT users in February, a decision that drew pushback from privacy advocates and users who questioned whether advertising could erode trust in AI-generated answers.
The Numbers Behind the Shift
Ramp's March AI Index, authored by economist Ara Kharazian, shows Anthropic's business adoption grew 4.9% month-over-month in February — its largest monthly gain since tracking began — bringing its share to 24.4% of businesses on the platform. OpenAI, meanwhile, posted a 1.5% decline, the steepest single-month drop recorded for any AI model company.
What makes the trend unusual, Kharazian noted, is that it defies standard enterprise logic. OpenAI's competing coding product, Codex, is "arguably better" on certain benchmarks and cheaper than Anthropic's Claude Code — yet Anthropic cannot meet its own demand, with usage limits and rate caps across every plan.
"I've seen ample evidence. Anthropic is becoming the go-to for businesses," Kharazian told Axios, suggesting the dynamic may have less to do with benchmarks and more with brand identity — comparing the choice between the two companies to the "green bubble/blue bubble distinction in iMessage".
What Comes Next
OpenAI remains the AI company used by the most businesses overall, but the momentum has clearly shifted. Anthropic's revenue run rate reportedly nearly doubled to $20 billion by early March, and tech companies have shown no signs of pulling back from partnerships with the firm despite the Pentagon's risk designation. The legal battle over Anthropic's blacklisting continues, with a six-month transition period running through late August.
