Trade Desk stock jumped more than 16% in premarket trading after reports that OpenAI held early discussions with the ad-tech company about a partnership to help build out its advertising business.
Shares of The Trade Desk surged in premarket trading on Thursday, March 5, 2026, after reports emerged that OpenAI held early discussions with the ad-tech company about a potential partnership aimed at helping the artificial intelligence startup grow its advertising business. The development offered a meaningful lift to a stock that had been under considerable pressure, having shed roughly a third of its value in 2026 before the news broke.
According to a report by The Information, OpenAI‘s conversations with The Trade Desk are part of a broader early-stage pilot that also involves talks with other brands, media agencies and ad-tech firms, signaling the company’s intent to build a credible advertising revenue stream alongside its existing subscription business.
How OpenAI could use Trade Desk to scale its ad business
OpenAI, the Sam Altman-led company behind ChatGPT, has reportedly been exploring how it might use The Trade Desk’s demand-side platform to help place and sell advertisements within ChatGPT. The Trade Desk operates a widely used cloud-based system that automates ad placements and measures campaign performance for brands at scale, making it a practical fit for a company looking to stand up an advertising operation relatively quickly.
The discussions come after OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT for logged-in adult users on its Free and Go subscription tiers in the United States. Rather than building all the necessary ad infrastructure from scratch internally, the company appears to be taking a pragmatic approach by leaning on established outside partners in the near term. OpenAI does intend to develop its own in-house ad technology over time, but the early talks with The Trade Desk suggest that external platforms will play a meaningful role in getting the business moving faster.
Advertising has emerged as a potentially important revenue lever for OpenAI as it works to monetize a reported user base of approximately 920 million people. The company is said to be targeting advertising as one of the tools it will use to help double revenue from its consumer ChatGPT business to around $17 billion in 2026. The strategic focus on ads has also increased after OpenAI reportedly stepped back from earlier plans to introduce e-commerce directly within the ChatGPT platform.
TTD stock: premarket surge following a difficult stretch
The Trade Desk’s shares climbed approximately 16.45% in premarket trading on Thursday, with the stock indicated at $29.31 as of early morning, compared to its prior closing price of $25.00. The move comes after a painful stretch for investors. As of March 4, the stock had fallen roughly 33.69% year-to-date and approximately 62.77% over the prior 12 months, dramatically underperforming the broader market during a period when the S&P 500 posted an 18.89% one-year gain.
The most recent blow to the stock had come in late February, when the company issued a weaker-than-expected first-quarter outlook. The Trade Desk guided for adjusted EBITDA of approximately $195 million, well short of Wall Street’s estimate of around $223 million, and shares fell roughly 15% on that day alone despite the company having delivered a strong fourth-quarter earnings report. Q4 revenue came in at $846.79 million, representing 14% growth, with earnings per share of $0.59 that narrowly beat consensus estimates.
From a broader fundamentals perspective, The Trade Desk carries a market cap of approximately $12.3 billion, trailing 12-month revenue of $2.9 billion and a profit margin of 15.31%.
What Wall Street thinks about Trade Desk
Wall Street currently holds a moderate buy consensus on the stock, with 16 buy ratings, 14 holds and 2 sells among analysts covering the company. The average price target sits at approximately $35.46, implying meaningful upside from where the stock was trading before the OpenAI news surfaced.
The reports of a potential OpenAI partnership arrive at a critical moment for The Trade Desk, whose core programmatic advertising model has faced growing questions about competitive pressure from AI-driven tools and ongoing uncertainty surrounding the broader digital advertising recovery. For investors who had been watching the stock struggle, the OpenAI connection offers a fresh reason to reassess the company’s longer-term growth potential.