AI Spending Grew 1.5% in August-September as Price Cuts Blunted Token Boom
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Nov 6
AI Spending Grew 1.5% in August-September as Price Cuts Blunted Token Boom
1 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Nov 6
Summary
Ramp data showed AI spend nearly stalled in late summer, rising just 1.5% across August and September after a 42% month-on-month jump in July, even as usage volumes kept climbing.
OpenAI and Anthropic price cuts, enterprise discounts and cheaper rival models appear to be driving the gap: customers are consuming more tokens but paying less per workload.
The top 1% of firms — the heaviest AI users — slipped slightly below their summer peak of about $10,000 per employee per month, enough to drag on overall revenue growth despite gains among median and top-10% users.
October spending re-accelerated 8.9% from Sept. 23 to Oct. 23, but Ramp said stronger buyer power and more efficient AI use still challenge assumptions of sustained hypergrowth.
That slowdown is feeding investor doubts around model makers' revenue outlooks, with Anthropic's reported valuation falling to $1.2-$1.3 trillion from $2 trillion and OpenAI trimming its target to $1.25 trillion.