American Express

OpenAI Gains Ground on Anthropic Among Businesses

Ramp, a corporate credit card and expense management provider, released data showing Anthropic led Ramp’s paying US business users earlier in the year but that OpenAI is narrowing the gap. As of July, Ramp’s dataset covering more than 70,000 American businesses showed Anthropic with nearly 44% share versus OpenAI’s nearly 40%. Ramp economist Ara Kharazian said OpenAI is growing faster in Q3 to date, though Ramp shared only percentage metrics (not dollars) and its sample skews toward tech companies. Ramp’s data also indicates overall enterprise AI adoption among its customers rose from over 50% in March to nearly 56% by July.

Berkshire Increases Alphabet Stake by 83%

Berkshire Hathaway raised its stake in Alphabet by 83% in Q2, growing to roughly 106 million shares valued at about $37.8 billion as of June 30. The holding includes a June-announced $10 billion investment tied to Alphabet's financing of AI infrastructure. Apple remained Berkshire’s largest equity holding (~$66 billion), followed by American Express (~$51.3 billion) and Alphabet. Berkshire bought $23.5 billion of stocks and sold $3.7 billion in Q2, ending a 14-quarter streak of net selling and reducing cash reserves from $380.2 billion to $364.7 billion. Berkshire fully exited its position in Constellation Brands and adjusted stakes in Delta Air Lines, Macy’s, Lennar, D.R. Horton and several financial and industrial firms. Warren Buffett remains chairman and says the Alphabet position originated with him; Greg Abel is running capital allocation as CEO.

Payback Strengthens FMCG Team

Payback, the American Express-owned loyalty business, has expanded its FMCG team to deepen collaboration with consumer-goods partners and accelerate its commerce-media activities. The company created a new role, Lead Sales & New Business FMCG, intended to lead sales efforts and pursue new advertiser and partner opportunities across FMCG. In June Payback appointed Maximilian Aigner — a former Bertelsmann manager with marketing experience — to the position; his hiring has been communicated both internally and externally as a commerce-focused sales appointment. The personnel move is part of a wider strengthening to make Payback more attractive to FMCG companies as it builds out commerce and media capabilities. The appointment was reported on 13 August 2026 by Horizont (Michael Reidel) and Lebensmittelzeitung (DFV Mediengruppe).