OpenAI’s Advertising Ambitions: ChatGPT Set to Enter the Ads Game

When Sam Altman said in a 2024 interview that OpenAI “would hate” to put ads in ChatGPT, the sentiment reflected the company’s research-focused DNA. Fast forward to late 2025, and the tune has changed dramatically. OpenAI is now actively building the infrastructure to turn ChatGPT into an advertising platform, recruiting engineers and executives with deep experience in Meta’s advertising machine.

The shift is strategic and calculated, signaling that the AI revolution is about to collide head-on with digital advertising’s trillion-dollar ecosystem.

The Facebook Connection

At the center of this transformation is Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, who joined the company in August 2025. Simo isn’t just any executive. She spent a decade at Facebook (now Meta), where she was instrumental in building the social network’s advertising juggernaut. She led the launch of ads in the Facebook news feed and rose to become head of the entire Facebook app from 2019 to 2021.

Before joining OpenAI, Simo served as CEO of Instacart, where she built a substantial advertising business and took the company public in 2023. Her track record speaks volumes about her ability to monetize massive user bases without destroying the user experience.

Now, Simo is hunting for talent to replicate that success at OpenAI. According to industry reports, she’s actively seeking a head of advertising to oversee all monetization efforts, including bringing ads to ChatGPT. The position would report directly to her, a clear sign of how seriously OpenAI is taking this revenue stream.

“Fidji was the product guru behind the development of the Facebook app and its highly-successful advertising platform,” noted Axios’ Sara Fischer. “She helped make Instacart one of the biggest retail ad businesses outside of giants like Amazon and Walmart.”

Building the Infrastructure

But hiring executives is just one piece of the puzzle. OpenAI is also building the technical backbone needed to support advertising at scale.

In September 2025, the company posted a job listing for a Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer, a role on the newly formed ChatGPT Growth team. The position focuses on developing campaign management tools, integrating with major ad platforms, building real-time attribution pipelines, and implementing experimentation frameworks.

The job description reveals OpenAI’s ambitions: “We are looking for an experienced fullstack engineer to join our new ChatGPT Growth team to build and scale the systems that power OpenAI’s marketing channels and spend efficiency.”

Industry analysts suggest that OpenAI’s advertising product could eventually allow brands to set goals and have ChatGPT advertising autonomously plan, buy, and measure campaigns. That would represent a fundamental shift in how digital advertising works, potentially competing directly with Google and Meta.

The Money Problem

Why the pivot to advertising? The answer is simple: money.

OpenAI operates at a scale that demands massive revenue. The company generated approximately $12-13 billion in revenue in 2025, largely through subscriptions and enterprise offerings. But it also burned through billions on research and development, as well as on the computational infrastructure needed to train and run its AI models.

Reports indicate OpenAI expects to burn through $115 billion through 2029 before turning a profit in 2030, driven largely by the projected $450 billion in server rental costs.

With 700 million weekly active users as of August 2025, a fourfold increase from the previous year, ChatGPT has the scale advertisers crave. Most of those users access the free version, representing an enormous untapped revenue opportunity.

“These days, you can start a playlist as a fan or consumer and say, ‘Okay, guys, listen to my playlist,’ then put the artists you like on there,” explains one industry insider about the changing power dynamics in Nigerian music. The same democratization is happening in AI. Platforms with massive user bases are finding new ways to monetize without traditional gatekeepers.

What Ads in ChatGPT Might Look Like

While OpenAI hasn’t officially revealed its advertising strategy, recent leaks and industry speculation paint a picture of what’s coming.

Code discovered in the ChatGPT Android app beta includes references to an “ads feature” with terms such as “bazaar content,” “search ad,” and “search ads carousel.” This suggests ads may initially appear in search results, similar to Google’s approach.

OpenAI could also pursue affiliate and transaction-based models. CEO Sam Altman has hinted at this approach, mentioning that the company might earn revenue when users click on products or complete purchases through ChatGPT.

Imagine asking ChatGPT with ChatGPT advertising for dinner recipes for the week, and having it not only provide options but also offer to order the ingredients for delivery, with OpenAI taking a cut of the transaction.

The Risks and Rewards

The move into advertising comes with risks. ChatGPT’s brand is built on helpfulness and reliability, qualities that could be undermined by aggressive monetization. Meta faced significant backlash when it prioritized engagement over user well-being, leading to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and lasting reputational damage.

“There’s a risk that OpenAI researchers view Fidji as the person who’s going to turn ChatGPT into Facebook, addictive, monetized, and ethically compromised,” noted one AI researcher familiar with the company.

There’s a risk that OpenAI researchers view Fidji as the person who’s going to turn ChatGPT into Facebook, addictive, monetized, and ethically compromised…

OpenAI will need to walk a fine line between generating revenue and maintaining user trust. The company has emphasized it won’t compromise its values, but translating that promise into practice will be the real test.

For advertisers, ChatGPT represents a potentially game-changing channel. With 700 million weekly users who actively engage with the platform for information, recommendations, and problem-solving, it offers a level of intent and attention that few other platforms can match.

The question isn’t whether ads are coming to ChatGPT, it’s how they’ll be implemented and whether users will accept them.

The Broader Implications

OpenAI’s advertising push is part of a broader transformation in how AI platforms view their business models. The company is not alone in this. Microsoft’s Copilot and other AI assistants are exploring similar monetization strategies.

The pivot points to the maturation of the AI industry. What began as research labs and experimental products has rapidly become big business, complete with all the commercial pressures that entail.

For the Nigerian tech ecosystem and African markets more broadly, OpenAI’s advertising strategy could have interesting implications. As the platform has gained massive global traction, with some analysts suggesting that India has become the single largest user base, the advertising opportunities in emerging markets could be substantial.

ChatGPT already handles approximately 2.5 billion prompts per day. If even a small fraction of those interactions include advertising or commerce opportunities, the revenue potential is enormous.

What’s Next

OpenAI is still in the early stages of building its advertising infrastructure. The company has appointed Omnicom Media Group’s PHD as its global media agency of record and continues to test shopping and e-commerce integrations within ChatGPT.

Fidji Simo’s hiring and the recruitment of specialized engineering talent suggest ChatGPT advertising could arrive by mid 2026, as previously reported. When they do, advertisers will have to decide whether to invest in this new channel or wait to see how users respond.

For now, it is clear that the AI revolution isn’t just changing how we search for information or create content. It may be about to reshape the advertising industry itself, with OpenAI leading the charge.

The question that remains: will users accept ads in exchange for free access to one of the world’s most powerful AI tools? Only time will tell.

What do you think about ads coming to ChatGPT? Would you pay for an ad-free experience, or are targeted ads an acceptable trade-off for free access? Share your thoughts in the comments below.