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OpenAI is Officially Building an Ad Platform for ChatGPT
OpenAI confirms it is building an in-house advertising platform for ChatGPT, a strategic move to monetize its 700 million weekly users.
Key Points
- OpenAI confirms it is building an in-house advertising platform for ChatGPT, a strategic move to monetize its 700 million weekly users.
- Former Meta executive Fidji Simo, who was instrumental in launching ads on Facebook, is spearheading the initiative.
- The company projects it could generate $1 billion in revenue by 2026 from monetizing its free user base, according to leaked documents.
- The move marks a reversal for CEO Sam Altman and positions ChatGPT to directly challenge the digital advertising market dominated by Google and Meta.
OpenAI is moving to monetize its massive user base by building an in-house advertising platform for ChatGPT, a strategic pivot confirmed by a job posting for a "Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer," as reported by Adweek. The move signals a clear plan to generate revenue from the chatbot's more than 700 million weekly users.
The Meta playbook: Spearheading the initiative is CEO of Applications Fidji Simo, a veteran of Meta where she was instrumental in launching advertising into Facebook's news feed. Her background in building monetization engines is now being applied to ChatGPT, where she is reportedly leading the team responsible for bringing ads to the platform.
A billion-dollar bet: The financial motivation behind the move is clear, as leaked internal documents project OpenAI could generate $1 billion in revenue from monetizing its free users by 2026.
A change of heart: The move marks a dramatic reversal for CEO Sam Altman, who once called advertising a "last resort" and an "aesthetic choice" he disliked. More recently, however, Altman has softened his stance, telling a podcast he's "not totally against" ads and that it would "take a lot of care to get right."
Challenging the duopoly: By developing its own ad infrastructure, OpenAI is taking a path few companies outside of giants like Google and Meta have attempted. The strategy positions ChatGPT to become a formidable new channel for advertisers, one that could disrupt the digital ad market long dominated by the two incumbents.
While OpenAI insists it will proceed with caution, the decision to build an in-house ad platform is the clearest signal yet that the company is preparing to challenge the established giants of digital advertising for a piece of the market.
As OpenAI leans into ads, Meta is testing the opposite approach by offering an ad-free subscription for Facebook and Instagram in the UK. Meanwhile, the ad industry is already bracing for impact, with some analysts predicting a "seismic shift" for marketers, while others are outlining the significant brand safety and trust hurdles that LLMs must overcome to succeed as ad businesses.
