OpenAI Reportedly Hires Meta Ad Veteran Dave Dugan to Lead Its Ads Business

It’s been two years since OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed hesitation about combining ads with AI, warning it could affect user trust. Well, in business, plans do evolve, and it has clearly evolved for the Altman-led AI company. Earlier this year, the company confirmed that it’s testing ads inside ChatGPT for free and Go-tier plans in the US.

OpenAI appears to be focusing on ad revenue despite Altman initially being hesitant about it

Although the company recently debunked rumors about a global ad rollout expansion, it appears to be stepping deeper into the advertising business. According to an exclusive report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), OpenAI has appointed industry veteran Dave Dugan from Meta. The company has reportedly hired him to head global ad solutions.

Per the WSJ, Dugan will report to Brad Lightcap and is expected to build relationships with major advertisers while scaling the company’s ad business. OpenAI, with this move, is clearly targeting Meta. To catch you up, the ad market is currently dominated by players like Meta Platforms, which reportedly generated close to $200 billion in ad revenue in 2025.

Yes, competing in that market will not be easy, especially as OpenAI is still early in testing ads within ChatGPT. If you don’t want to participate in ad testing, you can opt out with certain limitations. Speaking of user trust that we mentioned earlier in this report, OpenAI has made it clear that ads will not impact answers, and user conversations will not be sold to advertisers.

OpenAI’s relation with Microsoft appears to be shifting behind closed doors

In related company news, OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft is facing tensions amid the former’s IPO plans later this year. Although both companies recently shared a public statement about their partnership still being strong despite the OpenAI-AWS deal, things don’t look alright behind closed doors, as a report from earlier this month hinted that Microsoft is considering legal action against OpenAI and Amazon over their $50 billion deal. It will be interesting to see how this partnership pans out in the next few years.