OpenAI’s comeback is officially underway. Since GPT-5.6 Sol launched on July 9, the company’s revenue has jumped 35 percent this quarter, with enterprise revenue climbing more than 50 percent, according to CNBC. Ramp’s spending data backs up the narrative: OpenAI is outpacing Anthropic in Q3 business API spending growth, 82 percent quarter-over-quarter versus 76 percent.
The numbers matter because of where things stood just weeks ago. Before Sol shipped, Anthropic had reached a $65 billion annualized revenue run rate and overtaken OpenAI in quarterly revenue for the first time, Bloomberg reported. The Wall Street Journal put the gap in stark terms: Anthropic pulled in $11.6 billion while OpenAI managed $6.7 billion. Growth had slowed at both labs, partly because open-weight models were eating into the proprietary players’ momentum.
Sol appears to have changed the calculus. Enterprise customers — the accounts that actually pay the bills — are coming back to OpenAI at a clip that suggests the model’s performance improvements aren’t just marketing. A 50 percent enterprise revenue jump in a single quarter is the kind of number that gets CFOs to stop hedging their AI bets across multiple vendors.
OpenAI isn’t resting on this bounce. The company’s next model, Astra, is set to launch in the coming weeks. Anthropic, meanwhile, is rumored to be preparing a counterpunch with an improved Fable 5.1. The pattern is familiar from earlier AI cycles: a strong model release creates a revenue spike, competitors respond, and the lead changes hands. What’s different now is how much enterprise spending is at stake — and how quickly the market appears willing to shift its allegiance based on a single release.
