Report: The Trade Desk holds talks with OpenAI on advertising pact

The logo of The Trade Desk. (Courtesy logo, Graphic designed by The Desk)

Key Points

Shares of The Trade Desk rose after reports it held preliminary talks with OpenAI about selling ads across products like ChatGPT.
The discussions follow a difficult year for The Trade Desk, whose stock had fallen roughly one-third amid slowing growth and rising competition.
ChatGPT’s estimated 910 million users could create a new advertising channel, though OpenAI may ultimately build its own ad tech stack.

Shares of The Trade Desk rose on Thursday after a report from The Information that the company has held preliminary discussions with artificial intelligence developer OpenAI about selling ads against their products, including the popular chatbot ChatGPT.

The stock rally comes after a difficult period for The Trade Desk, whose shares had fallen sharply over the past year amid slowing revenue growth and increasing competition from rivals like Amazon and its advertising platform.

The company’s stock had declined roughly one-third in 2026 before the report of discussions with OpenAI surfaced.

Stock Price

OpenAI has recently begun experimenting with advertising as part of its broader effort to diversify revenue beyond subscriptions and enterprise services. The company launched early ad trials in February and has begun exploring partnerships with ad technology providers to support the effort.

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s flagship conversational AI product, reaches an estimated 910 million users globally. That scale could make the platform attractive to advertisers seeking alternatives to dominant digital advertising ecosystems operated by companies such as Google and Meta.

Analysts say The Trade Desk’s existing technology stack and advertiser relationships could make it a natural partner if OpenAI decides to outsource portions of its advertising infrastructure.

“Generative AI engines could be a significant source of incremental gross spend,” Evercore ISI analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a research note, adding that early indications suggest OpenAI may use cost-per-thousand-impressions pricing — a model that aligns with The Trade Desk’s strengths in inventory valuation and automated bidding.

The Trade Desk operates a programmatic advertising platform that allows brands and agencies to purchase digital advertising inventory across websites, mobile apps and connected television in real time. Roughly half of its business currently comes from connected TV advertising as streaming platforms increasingly adopt ad-supported tiers.

Analysts say gaining access to advertising inventory on ChatGPT or other large language models could help the company expand into a new category of digital advertising while reinforcing its position as an “open internet” alternative to more tightly controlled platforms.

Still, a potential partnership would likely face structural challenges. OpenAI has indicated that its premium paid subscriptions will remain ad-free, which could limit the available inventory for marketers. The company also faces the technical challenge of building the infrastructure required to deliver advertising without undermining the user experience.

Some analysts also caution that OpenAI may ultimately choose to develop its own ad technology stack internally.

“If Trade Desk clients could access ChatGPT ad inventory, it would clearly be positive,” D.A. Davidson analyst Tom White wrote in a note to investors. However, he added that the benefit could prove temporary if OpenAI ultimately decides to manage its advertising technology independently.

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Editor’s note: The Trade Desk is not affiliated with The Desk.