Ramp Reports Top AI Spenders Stalled in Q3
The top 1% of AI spenders peaked in July, according to SaaStr. Their spending slowdown may impact AI companies' revenue growth.
Original reporting · saastr.com
Original: “The Top 1% of AI Spenders Stalled in Q3. So Did Anthropic’s Dollar Growth.”
Read “The Top 1% of AI Spenders Stalled in Q3. So Did Anthropic’s Dollar Growth.” at SaaStr →
How this was written. Voyager Commercial wrote this article with a language model from SaaStr’s reporting (model: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast); it describes that reporting rather than adding to it. The original, linked above, is the full story.
Key points from SaaStr’s report
- The top 1% of AI spenders peaked in July and spent less in September.
- Anthropic's quarterly dollar add shrank for the first time in Q3.
- The top 1% of firms drives 80% of spend on OpenAI and Anthropic.
The latest AI Index from Ramp shows the heaviest AI spenders peaking in July, with the top 1% of firms spending less on AI per employee in September than in July, according to SaaStr.
Anthropic's amended S-1 filing reveals its quarterly dollar add shrinking for the first time, with $5.4B of revenue in Q3, down from $6.8B in Q2.
The top 1% of firms drives 80% of spend on OpenAI and Anthropic, and their spending slowdown may have a significant impact on these companies' revenue growth.
Adoption of AI across all other firms is still rising, at about $16 per employee per month, but this growth may not be enough to offset the slowdown in spending by the top 1% of firms.
Ramp notes that the top 1% represents a small group of firms, and its spending estimate is more volatile than the median and top 10% estimates, which may affect the accuracy of revenue forecasts.
Anthropic's revenue growth slowed from 140% to 47%, and the company warns that any adverse change in demand from its largest customers could adversely affect its business and prospects.
The concentration of spend among individual users is also high, with the top 5% of users who adopted Claude Code spending roughly 20 times more than other users.
Questions and answers
What happened to the top 1% of AI spenders in Q3?
The top 1% of AI spenders peaked in July and spent less in September, according to SaaStr.
How much revenue did Anthropic add in Q3?
Anthropic added $5.4B of revenue in Q3, down from $6.8B in Q2.
What drives the spend on OpenAI and Anthropic?
The top 1% of firms drives 80% of spend on OpenAI and Anthropic.
