OpenAI has tapped Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its inaugural chief of revenue, signaling to investors that the ChatGPT creator is serious about turning its AI technology into a profitable venture.
In her new role, Dresser will steer OpenAI’s global revenue strategy and assist more organizations in weaving AI into daily operations. Her background includes over a decade at Salesforce, where she helped integrate Slack after Salesforce acquired the messaging platform for $27.7 billion in 2020, and later rose to the position of Salesforce CEO in 2023 under Marc Benioff.
Earlier this month, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman issued a “code red” to employees, urging a sharper focus on improving ChatGPT and pausing certain new product developments.
ChatGPT debuted just over three years ago, kicking off global interest and a rapid commercial wave in generative AI that helped OpenAI establish an early lead. Yet competition is intensifying, with rivals like Google rolling out Gemini 3, the latest iteration of its AI assistant.
Altman has stated that ChatGPT now reaches more than 800 million weekly users. Despite this reach, OpenAI—valued at around $500 billion—has yet to turn a profit and has committed over $1 trillion in financial obligations to cloud providers and chipmakers powering its AI systems.
Concerns about whether OpenAI can meet its backers’ expectations, including Oracle and Nvidia, have amplified questions about a potential AI market bubble. OpenAI generates revenue primarily from premium ChatGPT subscriptions, though the majority of users still rely on the free version. In October, the company launched Atlas, a web browser aimed at competing with Google Chrome as more users seek AI-driven answers online. However, OpenAI has not pursued advertising within ChatGPT, a common revenue model for Google’s search ecosystem.
Altman’s early December memo also noted pauses on projects such as advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant named Pulse."}
