OpenAI is Broke… and so is everyone else

Sam Altman said ads in ChatGPT would be a “last resort.” That was just over a year ago. Now OpenAI is burning billions monthly, sitting on $1.4 trillion in commitments, with only 5% of users paying. Turns out the last resort came fast when people can’t afford yet another subscription.

Sources:
Only 5% of Users Pay for ChatGPT: https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/15/openais_chatgpt_popular_few_pay/

Rich Are Getting Richer: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/03/the-wealth-of-the-top-1percent-reaches-a-record-52-trillion.html

LendingTree Data on American’s Debt: https://www.lendingtree.com/credit-cards/study/holiday-debt-tariffs/

Complete source documentation is available on Patreon

To support the channel: https://patreon.com/VanessaWingardh

Chapters:
00:00 OpenAI Adding Ads to ChatGPT
00:08 Sam Altman: Ads in ChatGPT as a “last resort”
00:35 Sam Altman: “I hate ads” and “ads in AI is uniquely unsettling”
01:02 Sam Altman: “Rich people pay for the poor people”
01:43 Sam Altman: “Google ads are bad”
02:06 Sam Altman: “I like Instagram Ads”
02:33 Only 5% of ChatGPT Users Pay for the Subscription
02:58 OpenAI is Losing Money
03:40 American Credit Card Debt is Increasing
04:12 Cost of Living for 2026
05:00 Top 10% Own Almost Everything
05:18 Number of Billionaires: Over 3,028
05:45 Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek are Free
06:17 AI Agents and Shopping
06:36 AI Agents and Merchant Fees
07:05 “help customers anticipate their needs before they do”
07:50 People Don’t Want to Pay for AI
08:12 OpenAI Using Borrowed Money to Acquire Startups and Invest Infrastructure
08:31 Tech Billionaires Loves Subscriptions and Ads

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