OpenAI at Cannes: 'We are clearly in the advertising business now' — targeting $100B by 2030

What happened

At Cannes Lions on June 26, OpenAI's CRO Denise Dresser publicly branded the company an 'advertising business' — the first time it has owned that label at a major industry event. The company is pitching brands and agencies that advertising is shifting from an 'attention economy' to an 'intelligence economy' centered on chatbots.

Context and impact

The move signals how OpenAI plans to monetize 900M weekly users ahead of its planned 2027 IPO. Reported internal targets: $2.5B ad revenue in 2026, ramping to $100B by 2030. The ads pilot reached $100M ARR in under six weeks.

Details

• Roughly 1/5 of ChatGPT queries express 'direct commercial intent'
• Pitch: 'just taking your search ads and moving them here doesn't work'
• ChatGPT ads now in 7 markets (Japan, South Korea added; Brazil, Mexico next)
• Ads cannot access user conversations (privacy preserved)
• A direct competitive shot at Google Search Ads dominance