"Anthropic" and "OpenAI" account for 89% of revenues of emerging AI companies

Sada News - Currently, the companies Anthropic and OpenAI capture about 89% of the annual revenues of 34 major startups in the field of generative artificial intelligence, according to a report by "The Information".

This assessment covers companies that sell AI applications or provide access to AI models, and the total annual revenue for this group has grown by 112% compared to the past six months.

Both "Anthropic" and "OpenAI," which develop and provide AI models, continue to widen the gap between themselves and their competitors, even after accounting for accounting differences, media reports citing "The Information" said.

"Anthropic" records part of its revenue on a gross basis through cloud computing partners like Amazon and Google, while "OpenAI" is required to share 20% of its revenue with Microsoft until 2030, and could pay Microsoft around $6 billion this year, according to "The Information".

Anthropic's annual growth rate is the most prominent. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Anthropic's annual revenues might reach $50 billion by the end of June, up from about $1 billion at the beginning of 2026 and more than $30 billion in April.

As for "OpenAI," it stated in late March that its monthly revenue reached $2 billion, or approximately $24 billion annually, although a spokesperson later remarked that this monthly figure is not intended as an accurate gauge of its annual growth rate.

Smaller AI companies continue to achieve significant milestones, but many are still tied to their model suppliers, who are their competitors.

Since December 2025, the annual sales of "Perplexity," "ElevenLabs," and "Cognition" have surpassing $500 million, joining "Cursor" which has also exceeded this threshold.

The report suggests that these companies may also pay billions of dollars annually to "OpenAI" and "Anthropic" for access to the models.

Economic data from "Cursor" shows the pressure on startups in the AI application market.

The programming application recorded a negative gross margin of 23% in the quarter ending in January, before later returning to profitability, according to the report.

This volatility indicates a risk to products built on external models, especially if model suppliers raise prices or launch competing tools.

Yet, the competition for revenue does not necessarily reflect profitability. Anthropic and OpenAI alone may incur expenses exceeding $30 billion annually, primarily due to the costs of training AI models.

Similar to SpaceX, which might begin its promotional rounds for an initial public offering as early as June, "OpenAI" and "Anthropic" are expected to follow suit in the second half of the year, which could lead to a crowded IPO market for other large private software companies like Canva and Databricks.