Open-weight AI models spread from tech firms to traditional U.S. companies

Open-weight AI models are gaining traction beyond the technology sector and moving into mainstream U.S. corporations, according to a Financial Times investigation cited by ChainCatcher. Data from AlphaSense showed that mentions of open-weight or open-source models in earnings calls and investor meetings by U.S. companies in August and September were about six times higher than a year earlier. The shift is now showing up in public comments from companies including PNC Financial, logistics group CH Robinson and Siemens. Some companies also disclosed how they are using different model types for different workloads. Tinder said its annualized AI spending rose from about $1 million in January to about $10 million in July, and that it has started routing some routine requests to open-weight models. AT&T said roughly 40% of its AI tasks are currently handled by open models, with plans to raise that share to about 70%. The company added that its internal AI systems process about 45 billion tokens a day, using lower-cost models for simpler tasks while keeping OpenAI and Anthropic models for more complex work.