40% of Companies Now Spend More than $10M a Year on AI, New Report Finds

CloudZero report reveals AI spend surge has put a 15% dent in Cloud Efficiency Rates, even as FinOps maturity has accelerated

Published on Feb. 12, 2026

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A new report from cloud efficiency leader CloudZero finds that while the incidence of formal cloud cost management programs has nearly doubled year over year, mean Cloud Efficiency Rate (CER) has fallen by 15% across all segments. The culprit: AI spending, which now exceeds $10M at 40% of surveyed companies. The report also explains the inherent difficulties of AI cost reporting, with most companies lacking visibility into their full AI spend.

Why it matters

As AI investments continue to grow, companies that can effectively measure and optimize their AI spending will be better positioned to drive profitable growth. The report highlights the need for companies to put basic systems in place to track the effectiveness of their AI investments, as AI billing becomes more complex across public cloud, private cloud, and third-party providers.

The details

The report, titled "FinOps In The AI Era: A Critical Recalibration", was produced by CloudZero in partnership with B2B SaaS research firm Benchmarkit. It found that the top-quartile CER (a measure of cloud cost as a percentage of revenue) dropped from 92% to 85%, while the 25th percentile CER fell from 70% to 45%. This decline is attributed to the surge in AI spending, which now exceeds $10 million annually at 40% of surveyed companies. The report also notes the inherent challenges in AI cost reporting, as companies use a mix of public cloud, private cloud, third-party GPU providers, and hosted LLM APIs with different billing frameworks, making it difficult to get a comprehensive view of AI expenditures. Less than a quarter of companies (22%) track AI costs by transaction, leaving accurate pricing for AI offerings largely guesswork.

  • The report was released on February 12, 2026.

The players

CloudZero

The global leader in proactive cloud efficiency, and the publisher of the "FinOps In The AI Era: A Critical Recalibration" report.

Erik Peterson

The founder and CTO of CloudZero.

Larry Advey

The director of cloud platform and FinOps at CloudZero, and a FinOps Foundation Technical Advisory Council member.

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What they’re saying

“AI spend is surging, and most companies don't have the visibility to know whether it's driving returns. The math is simple: Whether or not your AI bets pay off, you'll eventually need to turn that investment into profitable growth. Companies that put cost intelligence and profitability guardrails in place now will be far better positioned than those scrambling to do it later.”

— Erik Peterson, Founder and CTO, CloudZero

“AI is throwing a wrench in companies' FinOps operations. The most successful companies have always been the ones that understand there's no tradeoff between making money and saving money; that FinOps comes down to making savvy IT investments. Even though AI billing is a bit chaotic at the moment, companies can and should put basic systems in place to measure the effectiveness of their AI investments. AI investments will only continue to grow. As they do, the companies with the firmest grasp of their profitability will be the ones who win.”

— Larry Advey, Director of Cloud Platform and FinOps, CloudZero; FinOps Foundation Technical Advisory Council Member

What’s next

The report recommends that companies put basic systems in place to measure the effectiveness of their AI investments, as AI spending is expected to continue growing.

The takeaway

As AI investments become a larger part of companies' budgets, the ability to effectively track and optimize AI spending will be a key competitive advantage. The report highlights the need for companies to adopt FinOps practices and gain visibility into their full AI-related costs in order to drive profitable growth.