Companies don’t buy the most expensive AI: Anthropic Fable 5 faces sluggish sales, OpenAI takes advantage to fight back

The strongest model under Anthropic hits a wall in the market, exposing deep cracks in the commercial model of the AI frontier race.

According to payment company Ramp’s tracking of spending data from 70,000 businesses, over two months after the launch of Fable 5, its share of total spending on Anthropic products has stabilized at about 11%, far below the usual buying frenzy that follows the release of high-end models. Meanwhile, competitor OpenAI is accelerating its counterattack—sources revealed that with the launch of GPT 5.6 in July, OpenAI’s annualized revenue for the quarter jumped 35% compared to the previous quarter, breaking the $40 billion mark.

Anthropic is also maintaining rapid growth, with annualized revenue reaching $65 billion in July, a substantial rise from $47 billion in May. The company also recorded its first adjusted operating profit in the second quarter of this year. However, this pace remains below some investors’ previous expectations for the $80 billion benchmark, casting uncertainty over the company's highly anticipated IPO prospects.

The high pricing of Fable 5 is the core reason for its poor market reception. Businesses are broadly switching to more cost-effective options—whether it’s Anthropic’s smaller but powerful Opus 5, or open-source low-cost models from China and other markets.

According to Ramp data, since Opus 5 launched at the end of July, business spending on it has already surpassed Fable 5, making it the real mainstay in Anthropic’s product line. OpenAI’s GPT 5.6 is also priced significantly lower than Fable 5, further shrinking the latter’s market share.

Accel partner and Anthropic investor Miles Clements, with nearly $1 billion invested, said, “Most people don’t need to operate on the very frontier.” He pointed out that customers’ tendency to only choose the top-tier model is “not a sustainable era.”

Ramp’s chief economist Ara Kharazian also noted that regulatory requirements for data retention are equally holding back Fable 5’s adoption.

The launch of Fable 5 was not smooth. After its release in early June, the Trump administration halted Anthropic’s promotion of the model for national security reasons, with approval for relaunch only granted on July 1. As a result, Anthropic’s revenue growth in June was markedly affected.

However, analysts and investors indicate that political uncertainty has now become a secondary factor in customer model choices, with price and performance being the main driving forces.

Kharazian admitted that predicting Anthropic’s future trajectory is extremely difficult. “If we extrapolate from past trends, Anthropic should lead the market. But because OpenAI’s latest models perform so well and Fable has underperformed, the result is quite the opposite.”

The sluggish sales of Fable 5 add complications to Anthropic’s ongoing IPO preparations. Investors estimate the IPO could reach a valuation of $2 trillion or more, possibly starting as early as next month, and may become one of the largest IPOs in history.

On the fundamentals, Anthropic continues to show strong growth—revenue has grown nearly seven-fold since the start of the year, and there are already 6,000 enterprise clients spending over $100,000 annually. Third-quarter profits are also expected to continue.

But Fable 5’s failure to replicate the explosive market momentum of previous generations breaks the assumption that frontier models will always lead consumer trends. If enterprise clients keep prioritizing value for money over maximum computing power, leading AI labs’ reliance on flagship models to drive revenue will face a systemic re-evaluation.