OpenAI has already generated $100 million in annual recurring revenue from advertisements placed inside ChatGPT within just two months, according to an Axios report cited in the screenshots, signalling that the company’s early push into advertising is beginning to produce meaningful returns.
Revenue projections and growth targets
OpenAI has told investors it expects to generate $2.5 billion in advertising revenue by the end of 2026, rising to $53 billion by 2029. By 2030, that figure is projected to double to $100 billion, a level the report says would exceed the revenue of large companies such as Tesla and Disney.
Those projections are said to rest on a major expansion in usage. The estimate assumes OpenAI will reach 2.75 billion weekly users by 2030. As of February, the screenshots say, that figure stood at 900 million.
The report notes that the advertising programme only began in February. Even so, it suggests the early revenue figure offers a possible answer to a broader question hanging over the artificial intelligence industry: how companies in the sector expect to become profitable when most users do not pay directly for access.
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Why ChatGPT ads may appeal to advertisers
They argue that the commercial logic is straightforward. Google already generates enormous advertising revenue by collecting large amounts of user data and using that information to place targeted advertisements. As more people turn to AI chatbots instead of search engines, the report suggests ChatGPT ads could be especially effective because users reveal their interests, intentions and preferences in extended conversations.
That depth of interaction, could make chatbot advertising more precise than traditional formats. It also helps explain why OpenAI appears to be presenting advertising as a significant future revenue stream.
At the same time, the report urges caution around the scale of the forecasts. It notes that the artificial intelligence industry often makes large projections, especially while companies seek investor support ahead of major financial milestones, including what they describe as an anticipated multi-trillion dollar IPO.
User trust and competitive risk
This also point to the risks that could come with monetising deeply personal conversations. Ads inside ChatGPT have already proved controversial with some users, and the report says this creates a potential cost for OpenAI as it tries to expand the business without alienating its core audience.
That tension may also have competitive consequences. Anthropic has highlighted Claude’s ad-free position in a series of Super Bowl commercials, turning user discomfort with advertising into a point of contrast. They also say some ChatGPT users pledged to switch to Claude after Sam Altman agreed to a Pentagon deal involving deployment of OpenAI technology across the military.
Taken together, OpenAI’s advertising push as both a promising commercial strategy and a sensitive test of user trust, at a moment when the company is trying to scale revenue without undermining the perception of ChatGPT as an impartial and trusted tool.
