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The chart that explains OpenAI’s ChatGPT ads push

Sam Altman and OpenAI are getting serious.

They’re dropping sidequests like Sora, and trying to catch up to rival Anthropic, which has a booming business selling tools to coders.

But OpenAI still wants to make money from people who will never give it a dime. It wants to do that by showing them ads.

And this chart from analysts at MoffettNathanson explains why:


chart describing ChatGPT's user base, divided between free/low fee users, who may see ads, and paid users who will not see ads

ChatGPT has lots of users, but only a sliver of them are paying for the service. The rest could see ads. 

MoffettNathanson



It’s a simple argument, but I’ll spell it out here: As of January, OpenAI’s ChatGPT had some 900 million users. But the vast majority of them — 850 million — pay very little or nothing at all to use the services.* So OpenAI wants to turn those zero-to-little revenue-generating users into reliable revenue generators by showing them ads.

That’s it. That’s the post.

But, since you are still here: While OpenAI says its barely hatched ad program is already generating results — the company has said it’s on track to generate $100 million a year in revenue, just two months into its ad launch — it still has a very long way to go.

The company is just beginning to build out the team and tech it will need to run a truly meaningful ad business — it just hired a top Meta exec to run sales — and for quite some time, ChatGPT ads are likely to be something ad buyers experiment with, but don’t rely on. Analyst Michael Nathanson says that while the company has been looking to charge advertisers $60 for every 1,000 impressions, it has been settling for something closer to $15 per 1,000 as it gets up and running.

*ChatGPT Go, priced at $8 a month, is OpenAI’s cheapest paid service, and subscribers to that tier will see ads, along with free users.




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12 companies that are embracing remote work amid the RTO push

Updated

  • Some companies are keeping remote work policies even as other firms call people back to the office.
  • Companies like Atlassian, Dropbox, and Deel report increased job applicants and retention rates.
  • Some firms also credit work flexibility with boosting employee satisfaction.

You might not be destined for a cubicle after all.

As a number of big-name companies increase their requirements for how often workers spend time in the office, some firms are sticking with remote work arrangements.

Those leading the RTO charge have argued that face-to-face collaboration breeds a stronger culture of teamwork and creative problem-solving. However, remote companies say they are reaping their own set of distinct benefits.

The doubling down on flexibility has been a boon to recruiting at some companies, allowing firms like Dropbox and Crowstrike to tap into a wider pool of talent.

“A lot of the companies going back to the office are leaking talent to us, whether or not they want to admit it,” Alex Bouaziz, cofounder and CEO of the HR and payroll platform Deel, previously told Business Insider.

Here are 12 companies that still offer remote work — and why:

Atlassian

Mike Cannon-Brookes is the cofounder and CEO of Atlassian.

Renee Nowytarger/The Sydney Morning Herald via Getty Images

The software maker Atlassian has 13,000 employees in more than a dozen countries. Nine in 10 of its workers report that flexibility is both an important reason they stay and that it allows them to do their best work, Avani Prabhakar, the company’s chief people officer, previously told Business Insider.

Since the company introduced its work-from-anywhere policy in 2020, it has seen the number of applicants per job opening double, Prabhakar said.

Coinbase


Brian Armstrong, cofounder and CEO of Coinbase speaks onstage during 'Tales from the Crypto: What the Currency of the Future Means for You' at Vanity Fair's 6th Annual New Establishment Summit at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on October 23, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California.

Brian Armstrong is the cofounder and CEO of Coinbase.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been remote-first since May 2020. L.J. Brock, chief people officer at Coinbase, told Business Insider via email that the company is not “remote-only,” but instead has hubs all over the world and no central headquarters.

Teams also gather in-person once a quarter for what Coinbase calls “Surges,” Brock said. Brock added that the firm is constantly iterating on its in-person meetings to make sure that the company’s remote structure evolves.

The company has taken a remote-first approach for a couple of reasons, Brock said, including the fact that Coinbase operates in a decentralized industry and that remote work allows the company to tap into a global network of talent.

“We’ve unlocked a caliber of talent that simply cannot be reached without the flexibility of remote work,” Brock wrote. “Our teams don’t have to choose between their personal lifestyle and the opportunity to build the future of global finance.”

CrowdStrike


CrowdStrike founder and CEO George Kurtz sits in dark lighting, wearing a suit and with a microphone attached to his shirt.

George Kurtz is the founder and CEO of CrowdStrike.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has a remote-first work culture. From its inception over a decade ago, the company has placed an emphasis on hiring talent from a diverse pool.

“Being a remote-first company ensures CrowdStrike can hire the best people — regardless of their geographic location,” the company wrote in 2022.

The company added that its remote structure enables employees with family or caregiving obligations to contribute to its mission.

Deel


Alex Bouaziz

Alex Bouaziz is the cofounder and CEO of Deel.

Vaughn Ridley/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty Images

Deel’s Bouaziz said the most in-demand workers are often most willing to push back — or leave — when employers introduce rigid RTO policies. He said that the strict approach by some companies has benefited Deel.

Deel has a global workforce and hired more than 2,000 employees in 2024 — out of a pool of 1.5 million applicants, the company said.

DoorDash


Tony Xu, co-founder and CEO of DoorDash speaks at the WSJTECH live conference in Laguna Beach, California, U.S. October 22, 2019.

Tony Xu is the cofounder and CEO of DoorDash.

Mike Blake/Reuters

In 2022, DoorDash committed to a “flexible workplace model” and continues to offer that structure to employees. The policy allows teams to decide how and where they want to work.

“Rather than requiring employees to work in an office for a set number of days, we recognize that elements of both in-person and remote work will differ depending on how distributed each team is, and the nature of each team’s work,” the company wrote in a blog post on the subject.

A company spokesperson told Business Insider it also offers “meaningful in-person collaboration where it makes sense.”

We’ve found that trust and clarity around outcomes matter more than rigid location policies,” the spokesperson said.

Dropbox


Drew Houston

Drew Houston is the cofounder and CEO of Dropbox.

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

Dropbox implemented a “virtual-first” policy in 2021. The cloud storage company has redesigned its workforce to focus on flexibility, and this approach has paid off in both hiring and retention, Melanie Rosenwasser, the company’s chief people officer, previously told Business Insider in an email.

The average number of applicants per job is nearly sevenfold higher than it was prior to the company adopting its virtual-first model, Rosenwasser said. She added that more than eight in 10 applicants accepted Dropbox’s employment offers, and attrition is the lowest in the company’s history.

HubSpot


Yamini Rangan of Hubspot

Yamini Rangan is HubSpot’s CEO.

Courtesy of HubSpot

The software company says more than 70% of its employees work remotely. HubSpot requires its employees to work from the location where they were hired, but allows them to log on from elsewhere for up to 90 days.

Remote workers can visit an office twice a quarter. The company also offers a stipend each month to go toward expenses related to working remotely.

HubSpot also provides funds so that workers in a geographic area can meet up with their colleagues. There are also monthly virtual chats, where the company pairs someone with another employee elsewhere in the company to facilitate a sense of belonging.

Mozilla


Anthony Enzor-DeMeo

Anthony Enzor-DeMeo is the CEO of Mozilla.

Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company

Mozilla embraces a remote-first approach while offering in-person options.

“Employees have the flexibility to choose the type of workspace that best supports their productivity and wellbeing — whether that’s a home office, a Mozilla office, or a co-working space,” a spokesperson told Business Insider in an email.

The open-source software company has offices or coworking spaces in several locations, including San Francisco, New York, Berlin, Toronto, Paris, and London. For those who prefer an office setting but are based elsewhere, the company may cover the cost of a coworking space, Mozilla said.

“By accepting the imperfect reality of a hybrid environment, we enable ourselves to take full advantage of the opportunity of this moment,” the company wrote in a 2022 blog post.

Olipop


Ben Goodwin sitting on couch withn Olipop wall behind him

Ben Goodwin is the CEO of Olipop.

Ben Goodwin

Olipop has been remote since its founding, but the prebiotic soda brand, which has roughly 220 staff members, hosts cohorts of new hires for off-sites throughout the year and also holds regular leadership and individual team off-sites.

In a previous interview with Business Insider, CEO Ben Goodwin said that instead of investing in office facilities, Olipop pays significant costs in employee benefits and perks. The company pays for employees to have a gold PPO plan and covers 95% of insurance costs, Goodwin said.

Olipop also offers department off-sites, a party at the end of the year with a DJ and a hotel stay, new hire orientations, and a program for leadership called Olipop Leadership University.

Spotify


Daniel Ek

Daniel Ek is the CEO of Spotify.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Since early 2021, when the music streaming service introduced a policy allowing employees to work from anywhere, Spotify has seen about half of its employees working remotely — from home or elsewhere — and the remainder going into an office.

Spotify states that roles are often associated with specific regions or time zones; most employees have the option to work from a country where the company has an established entity.

The annual attrition rate at Spotify has fallen to 3%, about half of what it was before it began the policy, according to the company. At the same time, the average time to hire workers has dropped to 37 days from 48, Spotify said.

Toptal


Taso Du Val

Taso Du Val is the CEO of Toptal.

Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images

Toptal, a company with about 700 employees, has operated remotely since its inception. Taso Du Val, CEO of the talent sourcing company, previously told Business Insider that he thinks of the structure as hybrid, because teams meet typically for three-day off-sites once a quarter.

He said the ideal work structure is an “80/20 mix,” which he describes as working remotely 80% of the time and meeting in person the other 20%.

Zapier


Zapier cofounders

Zapier cofounders are Wade Foster, Bryan Helmig, and Mike Knoop.

Zapier

For a week each year, the software company Zapier brings together its workers and customers to focus on various projects, Brandon Sammut, the company’s chief people officer, previously told Business Insider.

By working with customers and problem-solving with teammates, he said, “you naturally build connection and belonging.”

Some of Zapier’s 800 workers, who are spread across 42 countries, also gather periodically to focus on a particular topic or challenge.

An earlier version of this story appeared on November 14, 2025.

Have a tip? We want to hear from you. Reach out to the reporters via email at aaltchek@insider.com and tparadis@insider.com, or via the secure messaging app Signal at aalt.19 or tparadis.70.




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Nike plans to cut 775 employees in a push to accelerate automation

  • Nike plans to cut 775 jobs at its distribution centers in Tennessee and Mississippi.
  • The layoffs aim to streamline operations amid supply chain and tech enhancements.
  • Companies, including Amazon and HP, have cited tech advancements among the reasons for recent layoffs.

Sportswear giant Nike is set to cut hundreds of jobs as it consolidates its US distribution center operations.

The company said it plans to let go of 775 employees across Tennessee and Mississippi, citing efforts to “streamline” operations. Nike operates warehouses in both states.

“We are sharpening our supply chain footprint, accelerating the use of advanced technology and automation, and investing in the skills our teams need for the future,” Nike said in a statement to Business Insider on Monday.

The move is a part of CEO Elliott Hill’s larger comeback plan, known as the “win now” strategy, which aims to return Nike’s revenue to growth. Hill took over the sportswear giant in October 2024 as it faced significant challenges, including declining sales and increased pressure from rivals.

Nike made previous cuts in 2024 and last year, reducing its corporate workforce by 1% in 2025 as part of its realignment plan under Hill. The senior leadership team also saw a shake-up in 2025, with Nike eliminating the chief technology officer and chief commercial officer roles, among other changes.

In its statement, Nike said it’s taking steps to move faster, serve consumers better, and reduce the complexity of its operations footprint. The company had about 77,800 employees worldwide as of May.

The latest cuts come as concerns that AI will replace human workers grow stronger, with companies like HP and Amazon citing AI-related efficiency as a factor in recent workforce reductions. A recent study by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that AI’s skills overlap with over 11.7% of the US labor market.

The company said it expects the reduction to support its “path back to long-term, profitable growth.”




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Thibault

China’s AI push is about spreading economic gains, not enriching tech giants, a finance CEO says

Open source — that might be the clearest signal of how China wants artificial intelligence to reshape its economy.

Hisham Alrayes, the group CEO of Bahrain-based GFH Financial Group, said China is prioritizing open models and broad deployment to spread AI’s gains across the economy, instead of funneling them to a few tech giants.

Speaking at a Davos panel on China’s “AI+ Economy” strategy on Wednesday, Alrayes said the country’s approach reflects a fundamentally different economic philosophy.

“You look at the open structure of the China AI philosophy — then you have the non-open structure,” Alrayes said. “That signals that the benefit they want to see is to trickle down into the economy, into the companies.”

Open source as economic strategy

China’s most prominent AI breakout, DeepSeek, reflects that philosophy.

It mostly uses open-source models that have drawn global attention, in contrast to many large US language models that remain closed and proprietary, reaping the benefits of tightly controlled commercial ecosystems.

Meta’s former chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, has said that a key reason behind DeepSeek’s success is its open-source model, which, he said, can outperform proprietary models in terms of efficiency and innovation by building on shared research.

Meanwhile, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said that China’s open-source AI models could gain an edge globally because they’re free, making them more attractive than costly proprietary US systems for governments and countries that can’t afford closed models.

Similarly, Alrayes said, China — in pursuing the open model — is aiming for affordability and scale.

“It’s not the benefit of that company, of that product, the return of that individual. It’s not an individual — it’s an economy,” Alrayes said.

That philosophy is reflected in China’s national “AI Plus” action plan, which prioritizes diffusion, said fellow panelist Gong Ke, executive director of the Chinese Institute for New Generation AI Development Strategies at Nankai University.

The policy, he said, focuses on embedding AI across manufacturing, healthcare, finance, education, and other sectors, rather than on breakthroughs such as artificial general intelligence.

He added that the plan sets explicit adoption targets, with AI agents and intelligent terminals expected to reach 70% penetration by 2027 and 90% by 2030.

AI as infrastructure, not a profit engine

Alrayes said China’s open-source tilt ultimately reflects a broader goal: making AI an economic utility rather than a profit center for a small group of companies.

“China is looking to create value throughout the economy, very clear, with very specific objectives across the economy,” he said. “Not just as a benefit to those companies. This is the difference in the philosophy.”




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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump’s Greenland push is about avoiding a ‘hot war’

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says President Donald Trump is serious about annexing Greenland.

Trump amped up the rhetoric on Saturday, announcing on Truth Social that the United States would impose new tariffs on Denmark, which controls Greenland, and other European countries unless they hand Greenland over.

Speaking to Kristen Welker on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Bessent said Trump’s push to take over Greenland was not an empty land grab but a strategy to prevent future conflict.

“The national emergency is avoiding a national emergency,” Bessent said. “It is a strategic decision by the president. This is a geopolitical decision, and he’s able to use the economic might of the US to avoid a hot war, so why wouldn’t we do that?”

Greenland is strategically located in the Arctic, acting as a buffer between North America and Russia. It is also home to minerals important to the manufacturing of future technologies.

Trump has recently said that at least part of his reasoning for wanting to annex Greenland is so it can house his Golden Dome missile defense project.

“The president is trying to avoid a conflict,” Bessent said.

That project remains in early planning stages, however, and Denmark has never said it wouldn’t allow Golden Dome infrastructure on its territory. The United States already has a military base in Greenland.

The spectre that the United States — recently emboldened by its surprise raid on Venezuela that netted its leader, Nicolás Maduro, allowing it to move to open the country’s oil industry — could force Europe’s hand by targeting its economy or even take Greenland by force, has rankled US allies across the Atlantic.

European Union leaders held an emergency meeting on Sunday, during which they called Trump’s tariff threat economic blackmail.

“Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” the eight EU nations targeted by Trump said in a joint statement released on Sunday.




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