CANNES, June 23, 2026, 10:29 (CEST)
OpenAI plans to roll out ChatGPT ads in Brazil and Mexico in the coming weeks, with India next, the company said. Advertising lead David Dugan told reporters at Cannes Lions on Monday that ad revenue would help pay for and expand information access. The move is part of OpenAI’s pitch to investors ahead of a possible U.S. market listing.
OpenAI moved ahead two weeks after it filed a confidential draft S-1 for an IPO, its first step toward a public stock sale. The company hasn’t set a timeline. OpenAI said it may be able to finish some tasks more easily as a private firm.
Reuters said OpenAI could go public as soon as September, citing a possible valuation up to $1 trillion. Its March round put the company at $852 billion, pushing expectations for revenue growth and margins higher when financials open to public investors.
OpenAI told advertisers at Cannes that ChatGPT has over 920 million weekly active users. About 20% of queries are commercial, like travel research or product comparison. Ads show up for users on the free or Go tiers, positioned below ChatGPT’s unpaid answer.
Dugan said ads will be kept out of ChatGPT’s main responses. “A very clearly labeled ad, two separate models, and a clear separation from the organic results.” OpenAI wants to keep a line between ad content and answers to protect user trust. m&k
OpenAI is telling investors it sees $2.5 billion in ad revenue for this year, growing to $100 billion by 2030. Google pulled in roughly $295 billion and Meta about $196 billion in ad revenue in 2025.
Amazon is running ChatGPT ads that direct users to its storefront, Business Insider reported. Juozas Kaziukėnas, an e-commerce analyst, described it as “symbolic.” He said OpenAI could “have an easier time monetizing shopping intent through ads” rather than automated shopping services. Business Insider
The approach marks a distinction from Anthropic, which has positioned its Claude chatbot as ad-free and filed confidential IPO paperwork before OpenAI. Michael Ashley Schulman, partner at Cerity Partners, said OpenAI was “keeping options open as Anthropic edged ahead with its filing.” Axios
Costs are still weighing. OpenAI spent $34 billion in 2025, with around $19 billion going to R&D, according to the Financial Times. The Information reported spending hit $3.7 billion in Q1 2026 on revenue of $5.7 billion. Reuters was unable to independently verify those numbers.
Advertising might not ramp up as fast as OpenAI projects. EMARKETER forecasts ad revenue from AI chatbots to stay under $1 billion industry-wide in 2026. An Ipsos survey found 63% of U.S. adults say ads in AI search would lower their trust. Weak advertiser interest or pushback from users could make it harder for OpenAI to manage computing expenses and could impact its IPO valuation or timing.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman told employees the company is aiming for an IPO “within the next year,” according to The Information. He noted timing could shift depending on several conditions. For now, Cannes is serving as both a sales push and a test run for the market, trying to show that ChatGPT can monetize user intent without tipping its hand, per Reuters. Reuters
