OpenAI Projects Steep Advertising Growth, Targeting $100 Billion by 2030

OpenAI expects its nascent advertising business to generate $2.5 billion in revenue this year and surge to $100 billion by the end of the decade, according to an Axios report cited by Reuters on Thursday (April 9). The projections underscore the artificial intelligence (AI) company’s push to monetize its user base to help fund the soaring costs of developing its AI technology.

The financial targets, reportedly shared in recent presentations to investors, map a steep growth trajectory for the creator of ChatGPT. According to the Reuters report, OpenAI is guiding investors to expect advertising revenues to reach $11 billion in 2027, $25 billion in 2028 and $53 billion by 2029. These forecasts rely on the core assumption that OpenAI’s products will reach 2.75 billion weekly users by 2030.

This revenue push comes as OpenAI makes efforts to capture market share in a digital ad industry currently dominated by Alphabet’s Google and Facebook parent Meta. To illustrate the scale of this market, Reuters noted that Google posted 2025 advertising revenues of $294.69 billion, and Meta’s ad units brought in $196.18 billion during the same period.

OpenAI initiated its advertising efforts in January, testing ads with U.S. users on ChatGPT’s free tier and its lower-priced Go plan. While industry analysts have cautioned that introducing advertising to the platform might alienate some users and erode confidence, the AI developer reports that consumer sentiment remains stable and that few people are actively closing the ads.

Late last month, an OpenAI spokesperson stated that ChatGPT’s U.S. ads pilot “crossed $100 million in annualized revenue within six weeks of its launch,” according to the Reuters article. The spokesperson additionally noted that the company had expanded its pilot to include more than 600 advertisers at that time.

Recent coverage by PYMNTS has closely tracked these evolving monetization strategies, noting that more than 60% of U.S. consumers have used a dedicated AI platform in the past year.

As PYMNTS detailed on Wednesday (April 8), OpenAI is adopting a volume-based revenue model, leveraging its estimated 900 million weekly active users to build its ad business on free and lower-priced tiers.

Beyond traditional ad placements, OpenAI is also expanding into in-chat commerce, taking a commission on purchases made directly within its conversational AI interface. This strategy contrasts with its primary competitors: Google is integrating Gemini directly into its existing search ad ecosystem, while Anthropic is pursuing a premium niche approach focused heavily on enterprise subscriptions.