❯ OpenAI’s ad business hits $1B annualized run rate in 200 days, opens self-serve in India and Europe

milestoneOpenAI said Monday that ChatGPT advertising has crossed $1 billion in annualized revenue run rate, roughly 200 days after testing began in the U.S. in February. The company put the figure out ahead of an anticipated IPO as evidence of a “diversified business model” — ads alongside enterprise contracts, consumer subscriptions and usage-based API revenue.

expansionAds are live in more than 40 countries, the company said, and on Monday it opened self-serve buying to marketers in India, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. India launched last week; as one of ChatGPT’s largest markets by weekly actives, it went live with 50 brands and agency partnerships with WPP and Omnicom — the first time OpenAI has wired the agency system in wholesale.

full-year targetOpenAI is targeting $2.5 billion in ad revenue this year against total annualized revenue tracking above $40 billion, about twice its end-2025 run rate. Ads remain a single-digit share of the total, but they are the only one of the four lines to go from zero to a billion in 200 days.

valuation lensA company with almost all revenue in subscriptions and API calls does not get an ad platform’s multiple; proving out ads changes that frame. The ones recalculating are institutions preparing to buy into an OpenAI listing — they have to decide between a software multiple and the traffic-monetization multiple applied to Meta and Google, an order of magnitude apart.

▪ SIGNALA billion in 200 days does not prove ads sell well — it proves ChatGPT’s traffic can finally be priced as traffic.