OpenAI’s ad team has been reorganized seven times and leans heavily on Meta talent

OpenAI’s advertising team has been restructured seven times in less than a year. For a unit that only started piloting ads in February 2026, that pace of reorganization is remarkable. The team now numbers approximately 140 employees, and about 37% of them previously worked at Meta. A Meta alumni network inside OpenAI The most visible hire came in March 2026. OpenAI brought on Dave Dugan as VP of global ad solutions. Dugan spent over 12 years as a VP at Meta before making the move. His mandate centers on building specialized teams organized by industry vertical, plus a group dedicated to working with ad agencies. Fast growth, missed targets The numbers show real traction. By late August, OpenAI’s ad business had reached a $1 billion annualized run rate. Advertiser counts climbed too. OpenAI had around 60,000 advertisers by early October, with much of that growth driven by price cuts aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. Still, the growth has not been fast enough to match the company’s original ambitions. OpenAI’s early internal projection called for $2.4 billion in ad revenue for 2026, and the company is likely to miss that figure. Going global, going visual OpenAI’s ad operat...