OpenAI introduces ads in ChatGPT: a $100 billion bet and advertising industry skepticism
OpenAI made its debut at the prestigious Cannes Lions advertising festival, presenting a new advertising platform based on ChatGPT to the world's largest brands. This move is part of a large-scale monetization strategy ahead of the anticipated initial public offering (IPO), through which the company plans to achieve a valuation exceeding $1 trillion.
David Dohan, head of OpenAI's advertising division and former Meta executive, stated that the company intends to turn advertising in ChatGPT into a major revenue source. According to his estimates, about 20% of all queries to ChatGPT have clear commercial intent, with the most active sectors being tourism, retail, healthcare, beauty, and financial services.
Ambitious Goals and Market Skepticism
OpenAI has promised investors to drive advertising revenue to $100 billion by 2030. For comparison, this is roughly half of Meta's current annual advertising revenue. However, the reaction from marketers and leaders of major advertising agencies at the Cannes festival was more than reserved. Many doubt that OpenAI has sufficient targeting and analytics tools to compete on equal footing with Google's search advertising.
According to industry representatives, before challenging the giants, OpenAI needs to create more precise and measurable mechanisms for advertisers, without which attracting large budgets remains questionable.
Wave of Criticism and Internal Conflicts
The skepticism at Cannes Lions was merely a continuation of a sharper reaction that began in the spring. The launch of advertising tests in ChatGPT sparked a wave of outrage among users, especially among paid subscribers who expected that paying for the service would completely eliminate ads.
The situation escalated to the point where one OpenAI researcher, Zoe Hitzig, resigned amid the launch of advertising experiments, citing principled objections. In her assessment, the company has collected "the most detailed archive of private human thoughts," and monetizing this data set would allow the platform to influence the audience subtly—so that users cannot recognize or prevent it.
Competitor Anthropic did not miss the opportunity to capitalize on the situation. In a Super Bowl commercial, the company mocked clumsy advertising in chatbots, contrasting it with its product Claude as a service without intrusive promotions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman retorted, calling Claude "an expensive toy for the rich."
Financial Context and Prospects
Over the past year, OpenAI spent $34 billion and remains unprofitable. Ahead of the IPO targeting a valuation above $1 trillion, the success of the advertising strategy will be a key factor in attracting investors. Whether the company can create the analytics tools that the industry says are missing will determine if it can turn ChatGPT into an advertising empire.
Expert Opinion: OpenAI is in a classic scaling trap: massive infrastructure costs require aggressive monetization, but advertising in conversational AI is not just about placing banners. It is an intrusion into the user's intimate space, and the audience's reaction here will be much more sensitive than in search engines. $100 billion by 2030 is an ambitious goal, but without user trust and precise tools for advertisers, it risks remaining just a number in a presentation for investors.