OpenAI brought ChatGPT advertising to the stage at Cannes Lions: targeting $100 billion by 2030
OpenAI made a bold move by appearing for the first time at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. The company presented the world's largest brands with an integration of advertising into ChatGPT. This is not just an experiment — it is part of a strategy to prepare for one of the most anticipated IPOs in the tech sector, where the company's valuation could exceed $1 trillion.
David Dagan, head of OpenAI's advertising division and a former high-ranking executive at Meta, stated that about 20% of queries to ChatGPT have clear commercial potential. Particularly strong indicators are seen in the areas of travel, commerce, health, beauty, and financial services. According to him, these segments will form the foundation of the future advertising ecosystem.
OpenAI's ambitions are impressive: the company promises investors it will drive advertising revenue to $100 billion by 2030. For comparison, this is roughly half of Meta's current annual advertising revenue. However, the reaction at Cannes Lions was far from unanimously enthusiastic. Many leaders of major advertising agencies expressed skepticism, pointing to OpenAI's lack of precise targeting and analytics tools to compete on equal footing with Google.
Criticism and Internal Disagreements
Problems began long before Cannes. As early as spring, the launch of advertising in ChatGPT sparked a wave of outrage among users. Paid subscribers were particularly disappointed — they had expected a completely ad-free experience. The situation worsened with the departure of OpenAI researcher Zoe Hitzig, who cited fundamental objections. She called ChatGPT "the most detailed archive of private human thoughts" and warned that monetizing this data set would allow the platform to influence the audience subtly — in ways that users would not be able to recognize.
Competitors were quick to seize the opportunity. Anthropic, in a Super Bowl ad, mocked clumsy promotions in chatbots and contrasted them with Claude as a product without intrusive advertising. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman countered, calling Claude "an expensive toy for the rich."
Over the past year, OpenAI spent $34 billion and remains unprofitable. Whether the debut at Cannes Lions will attract advertisers and convince investors will depend on the company's ability to create the analytics tools that the industry says are missing. Without them, $100 billion by 2030 remains just an ambitious figure on a presentation slide.
Expert opinion: OpenAI is trying to carve out a unique niche — advertising in conversational AI. This is not just banners or search results, but personalized recommendations embedded in conversation. If the company solves the issues with analytics and transparency, it could become a serious competitor to Google. But for now, the market is cautiously assessing its potential — there are too many questions about the ethics and effectiveness of such a model.