What most observers currently view the sibling rivalry of the two companies as ‘Coke vs Pepsi’, especially in the enterprise space. Anthropic may be poised to be a much closer competitor even at this early point in the AI Tech Wave than generally assumed.
Even to the point of the non-trivial chance that Anthropic may surpass OpenAI with its AI technologies. Kind of like Pepsi becoming Coke. Again, low odds, but the relative momentum is there for Anthropic.
“The share of U.S. companies paying for Anthropic’s AI tools and services jumped in January, per new data.”
“Why it matters: It was Anthropic’s breakthrough month, writes Ara Kharazian, an economist at Ramp, which has been tracking business spending on AI.”
“By the numbers: The share of companies paying for Anthropic increasedto 20% from 17%, per Ramp, a company that offers corporate credit cards and expense-management tools to roughly 50,000 companies nationwide.”
“OpenAI dropped slightly from 37% to 36%.”
“1 in 5 businesses that use Ramp now pay for Anthropic, up from 1 in 25 last year.”
The piece goes on to use a much cooler comparison than ‘Coke vs Pepsi’ that I use:
“The big picture: The competition between Anthropic and OpenAI is shaping up to be the Kendrick vs. Drake tech battle of our time.”
“It’s not a zero-sum game in either realm. You can enjoy listening to “Not Like Us” and “God’s Plan.” Similarly, companies appear willing to pay for both companies’ tools.”
“Anthropic isn’t gaining users at OpenAI’s expense — at least so far, per the report. According to Ramp, about 79% of OpenAI users also pay for Anthropic.”
“Between the lines: Anthropic’s new software coding product, which went viral earlier this year, helped drive adoption.”
“Yes, but: The Ramp data doesn’t take into account workers inside companies who are using free AI tools — which would skew the numbers more in OpenAI’s favor, as ChatGPT remains the leader for consumers overall.”
“And Ramp’s data skews toward more tech-forward early adopter type companies; not the full breadth of the business sector.”
“A December 2025 report from Menlo Ventures found that Anthropic captures 40% of enterprise LLM spend — up from 24%, while OpenAI’s share fell to 27%, down from 50%. But the data looked only at API usage (not chatbot sessions or consumer subscriptions).”
“Zoom out: Adoption is happening crazy fast: Nearly 47% of businesses paid for AI in January, a new high. In 2023, that number was less than 7%.”
“The bottom line: “The race isn’t zero-sum,” says Ramp’s Kharazian in a release Wednesday. “At least not yet.”
If one looks at the two companies beyond the consumer/enterprise frame, there is a possibility that the picture potentially shifts beyond the current consensus.
I pay a good amount for both, I use both constantly and they work together quite well. They each have their strengths.
I think there’s plenty of space for both of them.
I do wonder if it’s bad on some level that they are so competitive… that their push to use more electricity and push to develop faster unleashes their safety restraints.
I pay a good amount for both, I use both constantly and they work together quite well. They each have their strengths.
I think there’s plenty of space for both of them.
I do wonder if it’s bad on some level that they are so competitive… that their push to use more electricity and push to develop faster unleashes their safety restraints.