OpenAI came to Cannes Lions for the first time to sell advertising

Ahead of its IPO, OpenAI showed up at the ad industry's biggest festival, pitching marketers on ads inside ChatGPT and a Codex tool for building campaigns. In-chat ad revenue for 2026 is estimated at ~$2.4B.

Author: Michael Kokin ·

Ahead of its IPO, OpenAI showed up at Cannes Lions, the ad industry's biggest festival, for the first time — pitching marketers on ads served right inside ChatGPT, plus a Codex tool for assembling campaigns.

In-chat ads have been running since February across seven countries, and the revenue from them in 2026 is estimated at around $2.4 billion.