TLDR
- Companies are increasingly using open-weight AI models instead of frontier systems from Anthropic and OpenAI to cut costs.
- Executive mentions of open models in corporate events rose sixfold in August and September compared to last year, according to AlphaSense data cited by the Financial Times.
- AT&T runs about 40% of its AI workloads on open models and plans to reach 70% within a year.
- OpenAI released new cheaper models, GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, cutting API prices by half compared to prior pricing.
- Anthropic unveiled Claude Opus 5.5, a more token-efficient model that costs about 40% less to run than its predecessor.
More companies are turning away from top-tier AI models to save money. Instead of paying for premium versions of ChatGPT or Claude, businesses are using open-weight models, which are AI systems whose learned parameters are made public so users can customize them.
Corporate America embraces cheaper ‘open’ AI models https://t.co/XQ77xsXx4E
— Financial Times (@FT) September 27, 2026
Open-weight models tend to cost less to run than frontier systems. That difference is becoming more attractive as companies work to control their AI spending.
Data from AlphaSense shows executive mentions of open models in corporate events jumped sixfold in August and September compared with the same period last year. The Financial Times reported the figures.
Companies Explain the Shift to Open Models
PNC Financial’s chief financial officer, Robert Reilly, said this month that his company runs its own compute. He said PNC uses frontier models through major cloud providers but also keeps open-weight models running in its own data centers.
C.H. Robinson’s chief strategy and innovation officer, Arun Rajan, said the company plans to keep sending simpler tasks to open-source models over time.
Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff said his company is a large customer of major cloud providers. He added that Match also uses Chinese open-weight models to help manage costs.
Tinder’s technology chief, Vinay Kuruvila, said frontier models already handle 90% of the tasks his team needs. He said that if open-weight models keep improving, he may stop using frontier models altogether.
AT&T’s chief data and AI officer, Andy Markus, said the company currently runs about 40% of its AI workloads on open models. He said AT&T aims to raise that share to 70% within a year.
Markus said open models keep improving, which gives the company more choices for where to run its workloads.
Cost Is Not the Only Factor
Beyond price, some companies say open models offer more control over data and security. Data center operator Digital Realty built its own internal chat tool that runs on open models.
Scott Wallace, a senior global director at Digital Realty, said the company puts proprietary data into its private model that it would not put into a frontier model. He said customer data never goes into a frontier model.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI responded to the competition with lower-cost releases this week. OpenAI added two new tiers to its GPT-6 family, called Sol and Luna, cutting API prices by half compared with earlier pricing.
Sol is built for complex work such as coding. Luna is designed for high-volume tasks like summarizing documents or pulling out information.
Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5, describing it as a more token-efficient model. The company said it will cost about 40% less to run than its earlier Opus model.
Anthropic product management lead Dianne Penn told CNBC the company is focused on making its models answer using fewer tokens, depending on a user’s chosen effort setting.
The releases mark the first from either lab since Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for the industry to slow down development of advanced AI. Both labs are now working to keep customers as competition from cheaper, open-weight models from firms including Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek continues to grow.
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