Sam Altman's “Last Resort” Just Became a $1 Billion Business. What It Means for OpenAI's IPO.

Published September 1, 2026 · Category: Finance

Overview

In 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called the combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and advertising "uniquely unsettling." He described ads as a "last resort" for the company's business model. Now that last resort is starting to look like a real business.

OpenAI announced Monday that ChatGPT Ads reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate less than 200 days after launch. Annualized run rate means that the business would generate that much over a year if its current pace continued, not that it has already collected $1 billion over the last year.

Details

ChatGPT now has more than 1 billion weekly active users, and OpenAI says tens of thousands of advertisers use its platform in more than 40 countries.

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Source

Originally published at www.fool.com.

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