Citi: AI Infrastructure Becomes Seller's Market as Anthropic Revenue Jumps 130% in Q2 2026

According to Citi research released on May 25, AI infrastructure and scarce inference capabilities have emerged as an absolute seller's market, driven by what the bank terms a "vertical wall of demand" — a phrase originally coined by OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar.

Anthropric is projected to generate $10.9 billion in revenue in Q2 2026, representing a 130% quarter-over-quarter increase, while OpenAI achieved $5.7 billion in Q1 2026, Citi noted. The report highlights growing compute and inference costs alongside long-term contract lock-ins from major players, as tech giants extract profits through aggressive tiered pricing amid intense competition for limited resources.