- Today On AI
- Posts
- OpenAI Begins Testing Ads in ChatGPT
OpenAI Begins Testing Ads in ChatGPT
AND: Anthropic closes in on $20B round
Danish Anwar
February 10, 2026
✨TodayOnAI’s Daily Drop
OpenAI Begins Testing Ads in ChatGPT
Anthropic closes in on $20B round
Databricks Proves AI Is Fueling SaaS Growth
💬 Let’s Fix This Prompt
🧰 Today’s AI Toolbox Pick
| 📌 The TodayOnAI Brief |
OPENAI
🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: OpenAI has begun testing ads for ChatGPT users on its Free and Go tiers in the U.S., positioning advertising as a way to fund broader access to its models without affecting responses or user privacy. The move signals a shift toward monetization at scale—and has already reignited debate over trust, neutrality, and UX in AI.
🔍 Key Takeaways
Ads are rolling out only to Free and Go users; paid tiers like Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise remain ad-free.
OpenAI says ads will not influence model outputs and that conversations remain private from advertisers.
Ads are clearly labeled, separated from organic responses, and excluded from sensitive topics like health or politics.
Targeting may use conversation context and past ad interactions, but advertisers see only aggregated performance data.
Users can dismiss ads, review ad history, manage personalization, and clear data at any time.
💡 Why This Stands Out This marks one of the clearest steps yet toward an ad-supported AI model—and a test of whether conversational interfaces can carry ads without eroding trust. Rival Anthropic’s Super Bowl parody underscores how fraught the idea remains. The bigger question: can AI balance sustainable revenue with the expectation of unbiased, interruption-free assistance?
Anthropic
🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: Anthropic is reportedly closing a massive $20B funding round at a $350B valuation, underscoring how capital-intensive the frontier AI race has become—and how aggressively top labs are positioning ahead of potential IPOs.
🔍 Key Takeaways:
$20B late-stage raise: Bloomberg reports Anthropic doubled its original fundraising target due to overwhelming investor demand.
Valuation leap: The round values the company at roughly $350B, just five months after a $13B equity raise.
Strategic backers lead: Nvidia and Microsoft are expected to supply the bulk of the capital, alongside firms like Sequoia, Lightspeed, Coatue, and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
Product momentum: Anthropic’s coding agents are gaining strong traction with developers, while new legal and business research models have already rattled public data providers.
IPO arms race: OpenAI is said to be planning a $100B raise, with multiple frontier labs lining up for a potentially blockbuster summer in public markets.
💡 Why This Stands Out: This round highlights how compute costs and competitive pressure are forcing frontier AI labs to raise at unprecedented scale. Strategic capital from Nvidia and Microsoft also signals deeper alignment between model builders and infrastructure giants. As IPO chatter accelerates, the question isn’t whether AI firms will go public—but which ones can justify these valuations once markets demand profits, not just progress.
Databricks
🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: Databricks says AI isn’t killing SaaS—it’s accelerating it. The company hit a $5.4B revenue run rate, up 65% year over year, with more than $1.4B coming from AI products that are driving higher data warehouse usage rather than replacing it.
🔍 Key Takeaways:
Databricks reported a $5.4B revenue run rate, growing 65% YoY, with AI products contributing over $1.4B.
CEO Ali Ghodsi argues AI boosts SaaS usage by replacing rigid interfaces with natural language, not systems of record.
Its LLM-powered interface, Genie, lets users query data warehouses conversationally, expanding access beyond technical specialists.
Databricks closed a $5B funding round at a $134B valuation and added a $2B credit facility, reinforcing its AI-first positioning.
The company is also seeing early traction with Lakebase, a database designed for AI agents, outperforming its early warehouse growth.
💡 Why This Stands Out: The real SaaS disruption isn’t data replacement—it’s interface obsolescence. As natural language becomes the default UI, traditional software moats built on user expertise erode, favoring platforms that adapt quickly. Databricks’ strategy signals a future where AI doesn’t remove SaaS—it makes it invisible.
| 💬 Let’s Fix This Prompt |
✨ See how a simple prompt upgrade can unlock better AI output.
🔹 The Original Prompt
"Generate blog ideas for a tech company."
At first glance, this prompt might seem okay. But it's too broad — and that limits the quality of AI-generated results. Let’s improve it using prompt engineering best practices.
✅ The Improved Prompt
Generate a list of unique, engaging blog post ideas for a B2B tech company that wants to attract decision-makers in mid-sized companies. Focus on topics related to emerging technology trends, industry insights, and practical solutions their software offers. Include suggested titles and a 1–2 sentence summary for each idea.
💡 Why It's Better
Specific audience: Targets decision-makers in mid-sized companies.
Contextual focus: Emphasizes emerging tech and practical solutions.
Actionable output: Requests summaries and titles to spark execution.
Tone and style: Guides the type of content (insightful, engaging, relevant).
🛠️ Learn how to adapt this prompt for SaaS, AI tools, dev teams & more →
Read the full PromptPilot breakdown
💡 Bonus Tool: Want to generate and master prompts instantly?
👉 Try PromptPilot by TodayOnAI (Free to use)
| 🧠 Smart Picks |