OpenAI pitches ChatGPT ad business at Cannes Lions ahead of IPO

OpenAI Pitches ChatGPT Ads at Cannes Lions Ahead of IPO

OpenAI made its debut at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week, using the advertising industry’s premier gathering to showcase its four-month-old ChatGPT advertising business as the company prepares for a public listing later this year.

A New Ad Platform Courts Madison Avenue

David Dugan, the former Meta executive who joined OpenAI as vice president of global ad sales earlier this year, told attendees that roughly 20 percent of ChatGPT queries carry “direct commercial intent,” with ads for travel, retail, health and beauty, and financial services performing best so far. The presentation, held at the Spa Villa Belle Plage on the Croisette on June 22, marked the company’s first formal pitch to the global advertising community.ppc

Since launching ads in February on free and lower-tier ChatGPT accounts, OpenAI has expanded the platform to seven markets. The company activated advertising in Japan and South Korea and opened a self-service Ads Manager beta in the United Kingdom this month. Criteo, the Paris-based ad-tech firm that serves as OpenAI’s primary resale partner, disclosed that more than 2,000 brands have now activated ChatGPT ads through its platform.criteo

Revenue Ambitions and an IPO on the Horizon

The Cannes appearance comes as OpenAI pursues aggressive growth targets for its advertising business. According to Reuters, citing an Axios report on investor presentations, the company projects $2.5 billion in ad revenue this year and expects that figure to reach $100 billion by 2030, based on an assumption that its products will attract 2.75 billion weekly users by then.reuters

Those ambitions are tightly linked to OpenAI’s path toward public markets. The company confidentially submitted its draft S-1 registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 7, working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on a potential offering as early as the fourth quarter of 2026.nytimes

Privacy Pledges and the Path Forward

Throughout its advertising rollout, OpenAI has maintained that it does not share users’ conversational content with advertisers. “We keep your conversations with ChatGPT private from advertisers, and we never sell your data to advertisers,” the company stated in its advertising principles published in January. The company’s data usage FAQ confirms it does “not share your chat content for marketing or advertising purposes”. Advertisers receive only aggregated reporting such as views and clicks.maciejturek

Dugan framed the advertising business as a way to fund broader access to AI. “The revenue that we make from the ads offering is going to subsidize and grow access to information,” he said at Cannes. Pricing has dropped from an initial $60 CPM with $200,000 minimums to more accessible tiers, with Criteo recently cutting its own campaign minimums to $10,000.emarketer