chokepoints.ai
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10 layers580 nodes2,376 dependencies9 chokepoints112 bottlenecks6,500+ companiesnode size = companies identified

Frontier closed-model developers

BOTTLENECK

A few companies control API access to the most capable models and set pricing and rate limits that constrain what applications can afford.

Labs developing state-of-the-art proprietary models without releasing weights. API access gates the most capable reasoning, multimodal and agentic functions. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind and xAI set market terms; their pricing and rate limits constrain what applications can afford.

Labs training and serving proprietary leading-edge multimodal foundation models without releasing weights.

What the evidence shows

Anthropic commands ~40% of enterprise AI spending, while OpenAI's share halved from 50% to 27% since 2023.

henon.ai

On OpenRouter, OpenAI accounts for 7.5% of weekly tokens, while Xiaomi alone has 21.1%.

digitalapplied.com
RESCORED JUL 2026oligopolyscaling6 companies

Who controls it

AnthropicOpenAIGoogle+3 more tracked

No independently verified market-size figure is published for this node yet.

Where it sits in the stack

depends onMLOps and training/serving toolchainCloud compute platformsAI accelerators and siliconModel training data inputsCompute hardware and componentsServers, systems, accelerator boards, and racksAI server OEMsODM and white-box AI server manufacturersSystem integrators for AI infrastructure
feeds intoFine-tuning, model hosting and inference-API providers (MaaS)Fine-tuning servicesServerless inference APIDedicated / reserved inferenceSynthetic data generationModality- and domain-specialist model developersImage and video generation modelsSpeech and audio modelsBiology and scientific modelsRobotics and world modelsCode and software modelsModel evaluation, safety and alignment servicesEvaluation and benchmarkingRed-teaming and safety testing+18 more in the atlas

9 upstream · 32 downstream

view in atlas

Related nodes

Open-weight model developersFine-tuning, model hosting and inference-API providers (MaaS)Model training data inputsModality- and domain-specialist model developersModel evaluation, safety and alignment services

Full scorecard, owner shares, supply edges and the full tracked roster are in the desk letter.

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