Some good news for The Trade Desk.
The company is reportedly in talks with OpenAI about a potential partnership to support ads in ChatGPT. According to the report, Will Doherty, SVP of inventory development at TTD, has been involved in the discussions.
If a partnership comes together, it would be a win for both sides. The Trade Desk would get closer to one of the most talked-about new ad surfaces in the market, while OpenAI would gain a partner capable of helping drive and scale advertising demand inside ChatGPT.
(Hey, clearly, mentioning AI a lot on the last earnings call was the right move! JK, JK!)
Why This Matters:
This all points to the emerging opportunity around AI chat. There may not be a hotter area of focus in digital advertising (and, as a result, adtech) right now.
Case in point: just a few days ago, The Information — which reported the TTD-OpenAI talks — also said Amazon is exploring technology that would help other apps and sites sell ads inside AI chatbots. That follows another development in which OpenAI tapped Criteo as its first adtech partner for a ChatGPT ad pilot in the U.S.
Together, these moves show that the market for AI chat advertising is starting to take shape. EMARKETER forecasts that U.S. AI search ad spending will reach about $26 billion by 2029, or roughly 14% of all U.S. search ad spend, up from around 1% in 2025.
Experts React:
Adding to some weirdness this week for TTD — the company’s CMO and EVP also had to preemptively push back on acquisition rumors following their latest earnings call. (The stock has been a bit down but is spiking with the OpenAI rumors.)
See the LinkedIn post on that here:
Our Take:
Just another busy week for TTD, who also launched OpenTTD, an all-in-one partner and developer portal that gives data providers, publishers, and marketers a single place to integrate with and analyze their business on TTD.
