The AI landscape is shifting from exclusive partnerships to a more open, diversified model. Anthropic, once closely tied to Amazon and Google, is now adding Microsoft Azure. This indicates that models are expected to specialize for different use cases, not commoditize, making multi-cloud strategies essential for growth.

Microsoft is not solely reliant on its OpenAI partnership. It actively integrates competitor models, such as Anthropic's, into its Copilot products to handle specific workloads where they perform better, like complex Excel tasks. This pragmatic "best tool for the job" approach diversifies its AI capabilities.

Enterprise platform ServiceNow is offering customers access to models from both major AI labs. This "model choice" strategy directly addresses a primary enterprise fear of being locked into a single AI provider, allowing them to use the best model for each specific job.

The assumption that enterprise API spending on AI models creates a strong moat is flawed. In reality, businesses can and will easily switch between providers like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. This makes the market a commodity battleground where cost and on-par performance, not loyalty, will determine the winners.

Legora pivoted its core model provider from OpenAI to Anthropic, driven by a strategic belief that Anthropic is aligning more with enterprise-grade needs while OpenAI is increasingly targeting the B2C market. This signals a potential bifurcation in the foundation model landscape based on end-market focus.

The belief that a single, god-level foundation model would dominate has proven false. Horowitz points to successful AI applications like Cursor, which uses 13 different models. This shows that value lies in the complex orchestration and design at the application layer, not just in having the largest single model.

The most advanced AI users are 'polyamorous' with models, using an average of 3.5 different tools. This indicates a mature usage pattern where users select the best model for a specific job rather than relying on a single, all-purpose AI, challenging the 'winner-take-all' market theory.

Major AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are partnering with competing cloud and chip providers (Amazon, Google, Microsoft). This creates a complex web of alliances where rivals become partners, spreading risk and ensuring access to the best available technology, regardless of primary corporate allegiances.

Brex spending data reveals a key split in LLM adoption. While OpenAI wins on broad enterprise use (e.g., ChatGPT licenses), startups building agentic, production-grade AI features into their products increasingly prefer Anthropic's Claude. This indicates a market perception of Claude's suitability for reliable, customer-facing applications.