Anthropic's Trump Feud Boosts Business Adoption

June 17, 2026

Anthropic is having a moment. The AI lab recently surpassed OpenAI in market share of business spending for the first time, according to Ramp data revealed in May. This milestone came shortly after Anthropic raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation and filed confidential paperwork for an IPO, reportedly on the strength of its first-ever profitable quarter. [1][2]

However, the Trump administration renewed its pressure on the company by sending a letter demanding Anthropic ban non-Americans, including its employees, from accessing its state-of-the-art models: the limited-release Mythos 5 and the more guarded version known as Fable 5. This effectively forced Anthropic to pull its latest all-powerful model from the market. [3]

Although the White House cited an obscure export control directive, speculation arose that hackers had easily bypassed Fable 5’s guardrails, which were designed to prevent access to Mythos’ capabilities—a model so adept at finding security flaws that Anthropic itself marketed it as dangerous and restricted its release. [4]

This latest development follows Anthropic’s earlier refusal to allow government use of its models for mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, leading the Trump administration to label the company a “supply-chain risk” in March. [5]

Despite these challenges, Anthropic’s sales to businesses have not declined—quite the opposite. Ramp’s data shows that the controversy may actually be boosting the company’s appeal. Ara Kharazian, Ramp’s lead economist, told TechCrunch: “If anything, it’ll probably boost them. Anthropic’s best month on record, as far as business adoption, was the month that the Department of Defense labeled them a supply-chain risk. There’s a lot of aura that comes with your model specifically being named too dangerous to use.” [6]

Ramp’s data, drawn from over 70,000 businesses using its platform, indicates that customers heavily rely on Anthropic’s Opus models, with business use steadily growing. In May, Anthropic’s share of AI subscriptions paid by businesses rose 2.5 percentage points to 41%, compared to OpenAI’s 39.5% (which remained flat from the prior month). While OpenAI still leads in overall consumer usage, Anthropic’s traction in the enterprise segment is undeniable. [7]

Beyond subscriptions, the majority of enterprise AI spending goes toward API calls for token usage in activities like coding. Anthropic’s Claude Code has earned a strong reputation as a powerful AI coding tool. When spending data includes model details—available in about one-third of transactions—businesses are primarily investing in various iterations of Claude Opus, especially the later versions. Opus, the model that preceded Mythos, remains openly available and continues to be a cornerstone of Anthropic’s offerings. [8]

In late May, Anthropic released a new version, Opus 4.8, further enhancing its flagship model. Although Mythos and Fable 5 had only brief market appearances—Mythos released to limited users in April and Fable 5 shut down after just a few days—the company’s available models are more popular with businesses than ever before. [9]

While the long-term impact of this White House drama on Anthropic’s IPO aspirations remains uncertain—public-market investors often shy away from companies entangled in government controversies—the current trajectory suggests resilience. Anthropic’s ability to turn adversity into advantage highlights the complex interplay between regulatory scrutiny and market dynamics in the AI industry.

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Anthropic's Trump Feud Boosts Business Adoption

Anthropic's Trump Feud Boosts Business Adoption

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