Ramp data shows AI spending stalled as Anthropic prepares for its IPO

Ramp data shows that companies’ token usage rose, but AI spending grew only 1.5% from August to September, compared with 42% in July. Ara Kharazian, Ramp’s lead economist, told TechCrunch that the heaviest-spending companies saw a slight pullback, enough to hold back revenue despite higher usage; in October, spending re-accelerated 8.9% from September 23 to October 23.

Kharazian said the trend does not indicate a demand problem, but a more competitive market. He pointed to price cuts by OpenAI and Anthropic, enterprise discounts, and cheaper or open-source models as factors reducing the cost of use. Anthropic said in a recent filing that its price reductions cut revenue growth by about $600 million. Kharazian said the era of hypergrowth may be over, challenging investor expectations as Anthropic prepares for its IPO.