OpenAI Maintains Leadership in Enterprise AI, But Anthropic is Rapidly Catching Up

Consolidation in the Enterprise AI Market

A survey of 100 IT directors (CIOs) from Global 2000 companies with annual revenues over $500 million, conducted by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), reveals that the enterprise AI market is consolidating around a few major players. Contrary to expectations of a fragmented market with many equal players, the research points to the formation of an oligopolistic structure.

OpenAI Leads, Anthropic on the Rise

78% of the companies surveyed use OpenAI models in production environments. However, Anthropic was the firm that made the biggest leap. Since May 2025, the company's enterprise penetration has increased by 25%, reaching 44%. OpenAI still holds approximately 56% of total AI model spending, but this share is shrinking as Anthropic and Google increase their market share. IT directors' expectations for 2026 are that OpenAI will have a 53% share, while Anthropic and Google will each have an 18% share.

Market leadership varies by use case. While OpenAI maintains its dominance in early and horizontal applications such as general chatbots, enterprise knowledge management, and customer support, Anthropic has taken the lead in software development and data analysis applications. Google Gemini, despite showing strong performance in many areas, lags behind in coding.

Spending Exceeded Forecasts

Companies' average spending on large language models (LLMs) increased from about $2.5 million in 2024 to $7 million in 2025. This represents 180% growth, more than double the projected 80% increase. Participating companies expect spending to increase by another 65% in 2026, reaching approximately $11.6 million.

Microsoft 365 Copilot dominates the enterprise chatbot market among surveyed companies with a paid license rate of over 90%. GitHub Copilot continues to lead the coding market with a share of around 70%. These developments show how rapidly AI technologies, whose impact on the workforce is debated, are being adopted in the enterprise.

Open Source Expectations Not Met

The research also revealed that the long-anticipated open-source revolution has not materialized in the enterprise AI market. More than a third of participating companies prefer proprietary (closed-source) models, and this preference is growing. IT directors cite faster model improvements, limited in-house AI capability, and data security concerns as the main reasons for this preference.

In conclusion, while the AI market is growing rapidly, a trust and capability-driven consolidation is underway. Although OpenAI's established leadership continues, Anthropic's aggressive growth and companies' multiplying budgets signal that competition will intensify further in the coming period.