OpenAI is touting the rapid growth of its advertising business as it prepares for an initial public offering.
On Monday, OpenAI said ad sales on ChatGPT have reached $1 billion in annualized revenue in less than 200 days.
“Advertising is a pillar of OpenAI’s diversified business model, alongside consumer subscriptions, enterprise offerings and usage-based APIs,” the company said in a statement.
The milestone for OpenAI’s fledgling advertising business comes as the AI company looks to drum up investor interest ahead of its highly anticipated IPO. OpenAI said ad revenue is now a “material part of the business.”
OpenAI’s decision to introduce ads to its popular chatbot proved controversial, with rival Anthropic mocking the development in a Super Bowl ad.
CEO Sam Altman previously expressed discomfort with the idea of AI advertising.
“Ads plus AI are uniquely troubling to me,” Altman said at an event at Harvard University in May 2024. “I actually think of ads as a last resort for us for a business model.”
Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad poked fun at OpenAI’s decision by depicting a chatbot that would use user questions to display emotionally charged ads. In response, Altman called Anthropic’s trolling “funny” but “clearly unfair.”
Ultimately, OpenAI may have found another crucial revenue stream as it heads toward an initial public offering that could happen as early as this year. Anthropic is expected to be the first to make its stock market debut, with OpenAI saying in June that it “may take some time.”
As of August, OpenAI said ChatGPT ads are available in more than 40 countries. On Monday, the AI company will launch a self-service advertising tool in India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
In recent months, OpenAI has shuttered previous ventures such as Sora, the short-lived TikTok-like AI generation app, to focus on its core business. At the same time, the company has seen a series of departures of top officialsincluding COO Brad Lightcap.
