1% of Firms Drive 80% of AI Spending on OpenAI and Anthropic, Growth Slows

Ramp data shows that just 1% of firms drive 80% of AI spending on OpenAI and Anthropic, with growth nearly stalling for two months. Per-employee spending for this top 1% reached $9,568 in September, an 11.7% monthly increase but 3.1% below July's peak, which Ramp lead economist Ara Kharazian attributes mainly to falling top model prices. Roughly 80% of these top spenders are venture-backed, and a potential pullback in venture funding due to rate pressure or a shut IPO window could affect model makers, cloud providers, and chipmakers. Paid AI adoption reached 55.9% of Ramp businesses in September, though the bull case requires adoption to spread beyond tech to sectors like grocers and consumer companies.