ChatGPT Ads speedruns the partner playbook

There is a well-worn playbook for big media owners entering programmatic: pick one exclusive partner, then branch out, then consolidate. ChatGPT Ads now seems to be speedrunning all of it. This week alone Equativ and Quartile joined its technology partner program, and earlier this month Adform signed on to sell ChatGPT's agentic conversation ads in Europe, while Amazon Ads is now beta testing ads in ChatGPT. Conspicuously absent from the roster is The Trade Desk - rumors of a partnership have swirled since OpenAI hired Samantha Jacobson, The Trade Desk's former chief strategy officer, as its vice president of partnerships, yet the biggest independent DSP has still not announced a deal. The same roundup notes McDonald's is testing ads on the digital menu boards at its drive-thru windows, serving content in the moments between ordering and food pickup.

The crux

ChatGPT is assembling ad inventory and partner rails fast enough to turn from a novelty into a genuine sell-side channel, and the open question is whether independent DSPs like The Trade Desk get cut in or shut out as the ecosystem forms.

Sell-side read

Watch how ChatGPT Ads packages agentic and conversation inventory - it is a new demand channel, but one that could route budget around the open web unless publishers get their inventory into those partner programs early.

Watch

Whether The Trade Desk announces a ChatGPT deal, and whether Amazon's beta goes to general availability, within the next quarter.