ChatGPT is now doing what Sam Altman called a 'last resort' only two years ago

By Jules Rimmer

After vowing not to, OpenAI's CEO is forced to backtrack

Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI has always maintained a public opposition to deriving revenue from ads - until now.

"I kind of think of ads as like a last resort for us as a business model," Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, said back in 2024.

Fast forward to January 2026 and OpenAI has seemingly reached that last resort. The San Francisco-based AI research company announced Friday that it will be introducing ads on its free bot service ChatGPT and the lowest tier of its paid subscription service ChatGPT Go.

Altman had always portrayed OpenAI's resistance to deriving revenue from advertising as a high-minded refusal to compromise on his company's commitment to independence and trustworthiness, staying true to its original aim of being a nonprofit organization. But in some respects, OpenAI is simply bowing to the inevitable demands of the marketplace with its apparent U-turn.

OpenAI is facing intense competition from the likes of Alphabet's (GOOG) Gemini and Anthropic, a public benefit corporation founded by former OpenAI researchers, and has around $1.4 trillion of funding requirements over the next decade. As recently as December, Altman issued a "code red" warning to his company that slowing subscriptions, surging investment costs and fierce rivalry meant that changes in the approach were necessary.

Adding to the pressure on Altman, well-known start-up investor and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis made a very public declaration on Sunday on his X account that he was canceling his ChatGPT subscription. He said they were spending $10,000 a year on that, but finding better value in competitors such as Gemini, as he also voiced a lack of trust over how the company handles corporate data.

"Long game but I think ChatGPT is 4th place now," wrote Calcanis, who added that "ChatGPT isn't keeping up" in his opinion.

Although it was valued at $500 billion in late 2025 after some employees were allowed to sell shares to investors, OpenAI is still loss-making and doesn't expect to be cash positive until 2030. According to an article in the Information recently, only 5% of ChatGPT users were paying for the service and so while Altman is on record as saying, "Ads plus AI is uniquely unsettling," he is probably left with no alternative but to adjust his strategy.

Read: This crazy chart shows just how much cash OpenAI is burning as it chases AI profits

"It is clear to us that a lot of people want to use a lot of AI and don't want to pay, so we are hopeful a business model like this can work," said Altman in announcing the change. That's as he insisted that his company "will not accept money to influence the answer ChatGPT gives you."

While ChatGPT is free, ChatGPT Go costs $8 a month and its Plus and Pro tiers costs $20 and $200 a month respectively.

OpenAI's chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, further explained the rationale behind the company's directional shift in a blog post on Sunday.

"Infrastructure expands what we can deliver. Innovation expands what intelligence can do. Adoption expands who can use it. Revenue funds the next leap. This is how intelligence scales and becomes a foundation for the global economy," she said, adding that OpenAI's revenue grew $20 billion plus last year.

Because it's not yet publicly listed, gauging the reaction of investors to the development is difficult. Microsoft (MSFT) owns a 27% stake in OpenAI as part of its partnership through which it provides exclusive cloud services. U.S. markets were closed for a holiday on Monday, and Microsoft shares were fractionally in after-hours trading, while shares of SoftBank (JP:9984), which owns an 11% stake in OpenAI, closed down 0.7% in Tokyo on Monday.

-Jules Rimmer

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01-20-26 0317ET