OpenAI is going back to the biggest stage in advertising.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the ChatGPT maker is expected to air a 60-second commercial during Super Bowl LX on February 8, marking the second straight year OpenAI has bought a spot in the Big Game after running its first-ever paid Super Bowl ad last year.
OpenAI Is Buying Another Premium Slot
Per WSJ reporting (citing people familiar with the matter), OpenAI is set to take a full one-minute slot during NBC’s broadcast.
That is a major flex in the advertising world, since Super Bowl airtime is basically the most expensive real estate in media.
Prediction Markets Are Already Treating It as a Lock
Traders are already pricing OpenAI as a near-certain advertiser.
In a prediction market contract asking “Which brands will advertise during the Big Game 2026?”, OpenAI’s odds reportedly jumped to 96% on January 13.
Other brands traders expect to show up include:
Pepsi
Liquid Death
AI Companies Are Spending Like Consumer Giants Now
OpenAI’s marketing push is happening as the AI arms race shifts from models and benchmarks to brand dominance.
The WSJ reported that Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Perplexity and other tech companies collectively spent about $334 million on linear TV ads promoting AI offerings in the US in 2025, a 43% increase from the year before.
Super Bowl Ads Are Still Absurdly Expensive
A 60-second slot at the Super Bowl is not just pricey. It is notorious.
The WSJ reported that some advertisers are paying over $8 million for just 30 seconds of airtime this year, and that number does not even include production costs, which for Super Bowl ads can be massive.
Bottom line: OpenAI is not just trying to win the AI product race. It is trying to win the consumer mindshare race too, and a 60-second Super Bowl ad is the loudest way to do that.