Menlo Ventures: enterprise AI spending hit $177B in 2026, with Anthropic taking 55% of enterprise API spend
The venture firm's annual report puts spending through September at 5.4 times last year's $33B, with Google's share of enterprise API spend falling to 9%.
Why it matters
Menlo Ventures, an Anthropic investor, publishes one of the most cited annual estimates of company spending on AI. This year it finds frontier labs capture 69% of deployment dollars, up from 50%, and that Anthropic's share of enterprise API spend rose from 40% to 55% while OpenAI's rose to 31% and Google's fell to 9%. Open-source models are 19% of usage but only 4% of spend. Coding is the largest application category at $34B.
Key facts
- $177B enterprise AI spend in 2026 through September, vs $33B in 2025
- Frontier labs: 69% of deployment dollars (was 50%)
- Enterprise API share: Anthropic 55%, OpenAI 31%, Google 9%
- Open source: 19% of usage, 4% of spend
- Coding apps $34.0B; chatbots $25.0B