AI Weekly Malaysia

OpenAI's ChatGPT Ads service has been serving ads and billing customers for up to a day after campaigns are paused, due to a defect where the ad-level serving status doesn't refresh when the campaign-level pause is triggered. A UK advertiser, Ed Bolton of Excel4Business, was charged £60.72 in invalid charges from the initial occurrence and ~£6.47 from a recurrence on August 4–5, with OpenAI support confirming the bug and processing refunds. OpenAI began testing ChatGPT ads in the US in February 2026 and expanded to the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea as of August 13.

Why: If you are running or considering ChatGPT Ads, monitor your billing closely after pausing campaigns—OpenAI's own support confirmed the pause doesn't reliably propagate to the ad-serving layer, and invalid charges may accrue for hours. Factor this into budget controls and don't assume a pause is instantaneous like on Google or Meta. This is early-stage ad infrastructure from a company whose 50M paying users out of 900M weekly users means ad revenue is now material to their business model.

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Ads in the UK, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea as of August 11, 2026, with plans to expand to more markets later in the year. The ads are positioned as supporting free access without altering ChatGPT's answers, and businesses can sign up at openai.com/advertisers/ for updates.

Why: ChatGPT Ads are not yet available in Malaysia or SEA, but expansion is planned 'this year.' SaaS founders and growth marketers should evaluate whether ChatGPT becomes a viable acquisition channel when it reaches the region — the ad format and targeting mechanics will likely differ from Google/Meta and may reward conversational, intent-driven copy rather than keyword bids. Developers building AI-powered products should note that OpenAI is monetizing the free tier through ads, which could shape API pricing and product roadmap decisions downstream.

Tencent beat Q2 2026 revenue estimates at 204.78 billion yuan ($30.36B), up 11% YoY, driven by domestic gaming revenue jumping 17% (titles like Delta Force and Valorant) and AI-driven advertising. Net profit missed at 56 billion yuan vs 61.82 billion expected, and capex is rising as the company competes in China's AI race; the stock was down 26% YTD.

Why: Tencent's profit miss alongside rising capex signals that AI infrastructure spending is squeezing margins even for cash-rich incumbents — a data point for SEA founders and builders weighing whether AI-driven ad or gaming features justify their own infrastructure spend. The AI-advertising revenue lift also suggests ad-tech integrations with AI are monetizing now, not just in roadmap slides.