OpenAI Bets on Ads to Fund Access, Debuts at Cannes

OpenAI used its Cannes Lions appearance to unveil its first ads product, arguing that advertising will subsidize access to its AI tools and shift the industry from an attention economy to an intelligence economy. With roughly 900 million weekly active users, the company says ads will broaden access rather than just drive revenue and will include guardrails to keep conversational data private. The pilot, started in the US with expansions to the UK and Australia, now offers CPC alongside CPM and highlights large-scale asset production via Codex, with OpenAI stressing the ads business is still early but central to reaching ambitious revenue goals.