23 Daily — According to saastr.com, Ramp’s latest AI Index, constructed from transaction data of over 85,000 US businesses, reveals that the largest AI consumers among companies peaked their spending in July 2026 and have since slowed down. An amended S-1 filing by Anthropic also indicates the company's quarterly incremental revenue shrank for the first time.
Top AI Spenders’ Expenditure Peaks in July, Growth Deceleration Evident
Ramp’s index shows that in September 2026, the top 1% of US firms spent $9,568 per employee monthly on AI, down 3.1% from July’s peak of $9,873. Although August spending dropped 13% from July, September partially recovered but did not reach the prior high. Meanwhile, the top 10% of companies increased spending from $740.47 in August to $813.43 in September, a near 10% rise. Median firms also raised their AI spend.
Ramp notes the top 1% group is small and thus more volatile, and that their customer base leans toward startups and tech-forward firms—similar to those leading the spring wave of token consumption growth.
Anthropic’s Revenue Growth Slows, Heavy Concentration Among Few Customers
Anthropic’s amended S-1 filing shows total revenue of $33.24 billion over the first nine months of 2026, with $4.72B in Q1, $6.84B in Q2, and $5.40B in Q3—a 21% year-over-year decline in Q3 revenue. Quarterly net additions slowed from about $760 million per month in Q2 to approximately $580 million per month in Q3, indicating deceleration.
Ramp previously reported that 80% of OpenAI and Anthropic’s AI spending derives from 1% of firms. The S-1 also highlights a similar concentration among individual users, with top 5% users of Anthropic’s Claude Enterprise spending roughly 20 times more than typical users. The filing warns that any adverse demand changes from major customers could negatively affect business prospects.
Price Reductions Impact Heavy Users, AI Adoption Continues to Expand
Ramp’s lead economist Ara Kharazian attributes the spending slowdown largely to falling prices for top AI models. Anthropic’s filing confirms that Claude Opus 5.5 cuts customer cost per task by about 40% compared to its prior version. For heavy users whose workload remains constant, this leads to up to a 40% reduction in bills, and the added usage in August and September did not compensate for price declines.
Meanwhile, AI adoption broadened: by September 2026, 55.9% of US businesses on Ramp paid for AI services, up 0.6 percentage points from August. Anthropic’s adoption rose to 43.8%, and OpenAI’s to 40.6%, with Anthropic holding 60.5% of AI token spending share by late October. New adopters tend to spend less individually, making it challenging to offset declines in top-tier user expenditure immediately.
Editor's take: Implications of AI Spending Shifts for Startups
The Ramp AI Index combined with Anthropic’s financial disclosures highlight how AI industry revenue depends heavily on a small number of large enterprise customers, and fluctuations in this group’s spending directly impact growth. The mid-2026 plateau and decline in spending reflect both service price reductions and limited increases in workload among top clients.
For startups, this underscores the importance of monitoring key customers’ usage and costs while diversifying the client base to include smaller businesses. Although new adopters may initially spend less, broadening reach is critical for scaling. Validation approaches include tracking monthly spending trends within top clients and the overall adoption rates coupled with average per-customer expenses to assess business health and growth potential.