DeepSeek tops US business spending index as firms ditch OpenAI costs
Synopsis
US businesses are paying DeepSeek directly — routing American data to China-hosted servers — to cut AI costs, pushing the Chinese start-up to the top of Ramp's corporate spending tracker in June 2026, even as OpenAI and Anthropic hold 34.4% and 32.3% of the index.
Key Takeaways
DeepSeek ranked first on Ramp 's 'trending software vendors' list in June 2026 , ahead of PheedLoop and Fireworks AI .
US firms are making direct payments to DeepSeek , routing data through China -hosted servers rather than self-hosting the open-source model.
Ara Kharazian , lead economist at Ramp Economics Lab , called it 'probably the biggest sign that companies are looking for cheaper alternatives to OpenAI and Anthropic .' DeepSeek 's US corporate adoption stood at just 0.1 per cent as of April 2026 , versus 34.4 per cent for Anthropic and 32.3 per cent for OpenAI .
A prior DeepSeek hype cycle in January 2025 saw adoption peak at 0.3 per cent before receding, suggesting the current trend is cost-driven rather than novelty-led.
Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek claimed the top position on a major US corporate spending tracker in June 2026, as American businesses increasingly route budgets away from expensive domestic models toward more affordable alternatives — including ones hosted on China-based servers.
The ranking and what it signals
The milestone comes from the 'trending software vendors' list published by Ramp, a New York-based corporate spending platform that flags software vendors receiving first-time business payments. DeepSeek topped the list, outranking event-management platform PheedLoop and open-source model-serving platform Fireworks AI.
Crucially, the data indicates that US firms are making direct payments to DeepSeek — meaning they are routing data through DeepSeek's China-hosted servers rather than self-hosting its open-source models on internal infrastructure.
Why it matters: data sovereignty concerns
Ara Kharazian, lead economist at Ramp Economics Lab, flagged the broader implication in a Wednesday report. “In probably the biggest sign that companies are looking for cheaper alternatives to OpenAI and Anthropic, some are willing to use cheaper, Chinese models, sending US data back and forth from China-hosted servers,” Kharazian said in a social media post.
The distinction between direct API access and self-hosted open-source deployment carries significant data-security implications, particularly given ongoing US-China technology tensions.
Context: from hype cycle to sustained adoption
This is not DeepSeek's first surge in corporate interest. According to the Ramp AI Index, US corporate adoption briefly climbed to 0.3 per cent in January 2025 before retreating to 0.1 per cent. By April 2026, adoption remained at 0.1 per cent, while market leaders Anthropic and OpenAI commanded 34.4 per cent and 32.3 per cent of the index, respectively. Ramp did not disclose market share percentages for June 2026.
Kharazian noted that DeepSeek “enjoyed a modest hype cycle” in January 2025, suggesting the current trend may represent a more durable cost-driven shift rather than novelty-fuelled curiosity.
The competitive backdrop
OpenAI and Anthropic continue to dominate enterprise AI spending by a wide margin, but the cost gap is evidently wide enough to push a measurable cohort of businesses toward a Chinese-origin alternative despite geopolitical risk. The trend arrives as enterprise AI budgets face greater scrutiny and procurement teams push back against premium pricing from Silicon Valley incumbents.
What’s next
Whether DeepSeek's position at the top of the Ramp trending list translates into sustained market-share gains against OpenAI and Anthropic will depend on how corporate risk and compliance teams weigh cost savings against data-residency and national-security considerations. Regulatory scrutiny of cross-border AI data flows is an escalating variable that could reshape enterprise adoption curves rapidly.
Point of View
Where model performance gaps narrow faster than pricing gaps, eroding the premium that OpenAI and Anthropic have commanded. What mainstream coverage underplays is the compliance risk: direct API payments to a China-domiciled vendor mean corporate data traverses cross-border infrastructure at a moment when US regulators are actively tightening rules on exactly this scenario. The firms making that trade-off today may find themselves at the leading edge of the next wave of enterprise AI regulation.
NationPress
21 Jul 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did DeepSeek top the Ramp trending software vendors list in June 2026?
DeepSeek topped the Ramp list because more US businesses made first-time direct payments to the Chinese AI start-up in June 2026 , reflecting a cost-driven shift away from pricier options like OpenAI and Anthropic . The Ramp list tracks new vendor relationships, so the ranking signals fresh adoption rather than total spending volume.
Are US companies sending data to China by using DeepSeek?
Yes, according to Ara Kharazian of Ramp Economics Lab , the direct-payment pattern indicates that these firms are accessing DeepSeek via its China -hosted API rather than self-hosting the open-source model locally. That means corporate data is being sent to and received from servers in China , raising data-residency and security concerns.
How does DeepSeek's market share compare to OpenAI and Anthropic?
DeepSeek 's US corporate adoption rate was 0.1 per cent on the Ramp AI Index as of April 2026 , far behind Anthropic at 34.4 per cent and OpenAI at 32.3 per cent . Ramp did not release market share figures specifically for June 2026 .
Has DeepSeek been popular with US businesses before?
DeepSeek saw a brief surge in US corporate adoption in January 2025 , when its adoption rate climbed to 0.3 per cent before falling back to 0.1 per cent , according to the Ramp AI Index . Kharazian described that episode as a 'modest hype cycle,' suggesting the current trend may be more structurally motivated by cost concerns.
What are the risks for US firms using DeepSeek's hosted API?
Using DeepSeek 's hosted API means corporate data crosses international borders to China -based servers, creating potential exposure under US data-security and export-control frameworks. As US - China technology tensions persist, regulatory scrutiny of such cross-border AI data flows is expected to intensify, which could force companies to reassess direct API arrangements in favour of self-hosted deployments.
