ChatGPT Ads launch in MENA, top $1bn run rate, as Thrad's advertisers go live

September 3, 2026 · ExchangeWire

OpenAI's ChatGPT Ads platform crossed into the Middle East and North Africa on September 2, 2026, taking its footprint to more than 40 countries and an annualised revenue run rate above $1bn (£741.6m), a figure reached in under 200 days. Thrad, the ad network for AI conversations, timed its own MENA expansion to the same day, moving its first cohort of regional advertisers live on ChatGPT. Those brands and agencies had already run paid ads across Thrad's wider network of AI publishers, testing conversational formats and building measurement approaches before ChatGPT opened locally. Thrad is now opening its managed service, covering campaign setup, conversational creative, intent based targeting and measurement, to brands and agencies across MENA and Southeast Asia, with applications open at thrad.ai.

Campaigns that spent months running on Thrad's smaller AI publisher network carry existing creative and targeting data straight onto ChatGPT this week, the same brands whose testing shaped the format now scaling on the largest conversational surface in ad tech. Media teams weighing a first conversational ad buy can apply directly to Thrad's managed service for campaign setup, creative built for chat formats and intent based measurement, gaining an operational playbook already tested in the region. Conversational ad spend inside OpenAI's platform alone already runs at a $1bn annualised pace, a scale that puts chat based formats on working media plans alongside established channels.