1% of AI Users Drive 80% of Spending Leaving the Boom Very Fragile

Corporate card company Ramp estimates that 1% of firms account for 80% of AI spending on OpenAI and Anthropic, while growth in that spending has nearly stalled over the past two months. Per-employee spending among those firms hit $9,568 in September, up 11.7% from August but 3.1% below July’s peak. Ramp lead economist Ara Kharazian attributed the slowdown mainly to falling prices for leading models; Ramp cautioned that its top-1% estimate is volatile, and economist Brad DeLong said the data skews toward tech customers and omits free tools. Roughly 80% of those top spenders are venture-backed, and rate pressure or a closed initial public offering (IPO) market would mean less venture funding.