Amazon Ads opens ChatGPT to its DSP, extending the supply-chasing streak

Amazon has cut a deal to let advertisers using Amazon Ads - the retail giant's platform that includes its buying tool, the Amazon DSP - buy ads inside the ChatGPT app, a pilot for now limited to select U.S. advertisers with Delta Vacations among the first named. It is the latest in an 18-month supply landgrab that has already routed Netflix, Roku, Spotify, SiriusXM, Disney, Hulu and ESPN inventory through Amazon's ad stack. Chris Conetta, director of omnichannel supply at Amazon DSP, framed it as reach: "Conversational ads represent the fastest growing engagement opportunity for brands to reach new and existing audiences... With access to ChatGPT Ads, advertisers can now extend their campaigns further into where their customers are actively spending time in conversational chat platforms." The subtext is fee economics: Amazon's DSP already lands near zero on programmatic guaranteed deals against The Trade Desk's historical 15 to 20% or Google's similar cut, paired with first-party shopping data no rival can match. The deal also lands exactly as the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit alleging Amazon duped advertisers into overpaying comes into focus - yet eMarketer's Nate Elliott, principal analyst of AI, doubts the quarter that matters: "It'd be overly generous to call Q4 a stress test for OpenAI's ad business. They're still trying to build out even many of the basics of a functional ad sales operation."

The crux

Amazon is converting its first-party data and near-zero-fee DSP into a supply landgrab across every premium surface, and ChatGPT is the newest one - the open programmatic market risks watching more premium, high-intent inventory transact through a single near-zero-fee buyer while OpenAI chases a reported $100 billion ad-revenue target by 2030.

Sell-side read

If conversational inventory starts clearing through Amazon's near-zero-fee DSP, publishers should assume the pressure on open-market CPMs and take rates intensifies - and should watch whether ChatGPT becomes the default route for high-intent, full-funnel demand that used to reach the open web.

Watch

whether the pilot expands beyond select U.S. advertisers into Q4, and whether Delta Vacations publishes any early performance read.