Why Is Trade Desk (TTD) Stock Rallying Premarket? OpenAI Explores Ad Partnership

Shares of The Trade Desk, Inc. (TTD) 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 to help grow the AI startup’s advertising business. The news provided a significant boost to a stock that has been under considerable pressure in recent months, with TTD having shed roughly a third of its value year-to-date before this development.

According to a report by The Information, OpenAI is in early talks with The Trade Desk as part of a broader pilot that also includes conversations with other brands, media agencies, and ad-tech firms, signaling the company’s intent to build out a meaningful advertising revenue stream alongside its subscription business.

How OpenAI Could Use Trade Desk to Scale Ads

OpenAI, the Sam Altman-led artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, has reportedly held early discussions with The Trade Desk about leveraging the ad-tech firm’s demand-side platform to help sell advertisements on its ChatGPT platform.

The Trade Desk operates a widely used cloud-based system that automates ad placements and performance measurement for brands, making it a logical partner for a company looking to quickly scale an advertising operation. The talks suggest that OpenAI, which recently began testing ads in ChatGPT for logged-in adult users on its Free and Go subscription tiers in the U.S., may lean on established external partners in the near term rather than building everything in-house from scratch.

Advertising represents a potentially critical revenue lever for OpenAI, which is aiming to monetize a user base of approximately 920 million people. The company reportedly expects advertising to help double revenue from its consumer ChatGPT business to $17 billion in 2026, and the strategic importance of ads has grown further after OpenAI reportedly stepped back from plans to roll out e-commerce directly within ChatGPT.

While the company does intend to develop its own in-house ad technology over time, the early-stage partnership discussions with The Trade Desk point to a pragmatic approach of using proven external infrastructure to get its ad business off the ground faster.

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TTD Stock: Premarket Surge and Recent Performance

TTD shares jumped approximately 16.45% in premarket trading on Thursday, with the stock indicated at $29.31 as of 5:11 AM EST, compared to its prior closing price of $25.00. The pop follows a period of sharp underperformance: the stock had declined roughly 33.69% year-to-date and about 62.77% over the past twelve months as of March 4, dramatically lagging the S&P 500’s 18.89% one-year gain.

The most recent significant blow came in late February, when the company issued a disappointing Q1 outlook with adjusted EBITDA guidance of approximately $195 million, well below Wall Street’s estimate of $223 million, sending shares tumbling around 15% on the day despite a Q4 earnings beat.

From a fundamentals standpoint, The Trade Desk carries a market cap of roughly $12.3 billion, trailing twelve-month revenue of $2.9 billion, and a profit margin of 15.31%. The company posted Q4 revenue of $846.79 million, representing 14% growth, and EPS of $0.59, narrowly beating consensus estimates.

Wall Street currently holds a Moderate Buy consensus on the stock, with 16 Buy ratings, 14 Holds, and 2 Sells, and an average price target of approximately $35.46, implying meaningful upside from current levels.

The OpenAI partnership news arrives as a potential catalyst that could help restore investor confidence in a company whose core ad-tech model has faced mounting questions about competitive pressures from AI-driven tools and broader uncertainty around the digital advertising recovery.

Disclaimer: The author does not hold or have a position in any securities discussed in the article. All stock prices were quoted at the time of writing.