Had to crunch the ad revenue projection numbers for OpenAI real quick, had enough of the fearmongering and nonsense takes. AGI... now funded by 5x60 second unskippable ads!

Hacker News is a community-driven platform for sharing and discussing technology news, startups, and programming-related topics. Through user submissions and comments, Hacker News offers insights into emerging technology trends, industry developments, and entrepreneurial ventures. Readers can participate in discussions, share their insights, and stay informed about the latest advancements in technology and innovation.

Hacker News

OpenAI announced ads in ChatGPT's free tier, targeting $1B in ad revenue for 2026 and potentially $25B by 2029. The analysis projects ChatGPT's ARPU could reach $5.50 in 2026 (comparable to Perplexity's premium CPMs) and scale to $50 by 2029, approaching Google's search ad revenue per user. With 950M free users and high-intent queries similar to search rather than social media scrolling, total revenue projections reach $30-35B in 2026 and $140-150B by 2029. The piece critiques the irony of AGI development being funded by advertising, comparing OpenAI's strategy to Google and Meta's ad platforms while noting their hire of Meta's former monetization leader.

The A in AGI stands for Ads

<p>I’d say I called it, but tbh who didn’t?</p>
