How Two Companies Built a $71+ Billion Drug Class

In 2025, two drugs earned more than double the combined revenue of OpenAI and Anthropic and reached under 2% of the people who qualify. This is a deep dive on the biology, the economics, and where...

In 2025, two drugs earned $71 billion between them, more than double the combined revenue of OpenAI and Anthropic that year. The drugs are semaglutide, which Novo Nordisk sells as Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide, which Eli Lilly sells as Mounjaro and Zepbound. Tirzepatide became the best-selling pharmaceutical in the world. Though AI revenue is accelerating and the gap is closing, through 2025, two molecules out-earned the two leading frontier AI companies combined, and they did it while reaching fewer than 2% of the roughly 800 million people who would qualify for them globally.…