Anthropic just had its best month ever in business AI spending, surpassing OpenAI for the first time. Ramp's data from over 70,000 businesses shows Anthropic captured 41% of AI subscription spending in May, up 2.5 percentage points, while OpenAI stayed flat at 39.5%.

This comes despite—or perhaps because of—escalating conflict with the Trump administration. On Friday, the White House demanded Anthropic ban non-Americans, including its own employees, from accessing its state-of-the-art models Mythos 5 and Fable 5. Anthropic responded by pulling Fable 5 from the market entirely.

The administration cited an obscure export control directive. Industry chatter suggests hackers easily bypassed Fable 5's guardrails, which were designed to prevent access to Mythos' capabilities. Mythos is so effective at finding security flaws in code that Anthropic itself restricted its public release.

This isn't the first time government pressure has backfired. In March, the Trump administration declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk after it refused to allow its models for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. That month became Anthropic's best for business adoption.

"There's a lot of aura that comes with your model specifically being named too dangerous to use," said Ramp lead economist Ara Kharazian, who compiled the data.

The Numbers

Ramp's data covers AI subscriptions and API spending across its platform. Key metrics:

  • Anthropic's share of AI subscriptions: 41% (May), up from 38.5% in April
  • OpenAI's share: 39.5% (flat month-over-month)
  • OpenAI still dominates consumer usage (Sensor Tower data)

Most business spending goes to API calls for coding. Anthropic's Claude Code is a popular AI coding tool. When Ramp can see model details (about one-third of transactions), businesses primarily use various Claude Opus versions, especially the later ones. Anthropic released Opus 4.8 in late May.

The Mythos Effect

Mythos was released to limited users in April. Fable 5, a public version with guardrails, lasted only days before being pulled. The forced removal may actually validate the model's power. Kharazian expects this latest feud to boost Anthropic further.

Impact on IPO

Anthropic filed confidential IPO paperwork in June, following its first profitable quarter. It raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation, also surpassing OpenAI. Public investors typically avoid companies with government controversies, but the sales data suggests the drama hasn't hurt demand.

What Developers Should Know

If you're using Claude for coding, you're not alone. The Opus line remains available and is the most popular among businesses. Mythos and Fable 5 are off the market, but their capabilities set a new bar for AI-assisted vulnerability discovery. Expect Anthropic to continue pushing the boundaries—government pushback or not.