In the space of a single week, OpenAI plugged ChatGPT Ads into Amazon’s advertising technology, gave Shopify merchants a native app for running campaigns, and connected the platform to HubSpot’s CRM data. None of it changes where a Malaysian business can currently buy ChatGPT ads — that list still doesn’t include Malaysia. But the way OpenAI is expanding has shifted, and that shift matters more to Malaysian marketers than another country being added to a list.

What OpenAI Actually Announced

Three separate but related developments landed within days of each other in September 2026.

On 10 September, Amazon Ads confirmed a partnership with OpenAI that extends Amazon’s existing demand-side platform into what it calls a “conversational ad experience” inside ChatGPT. Advertisers already running Amazon DSP campaigns can, in principle, have those campaigns appear as users research and compare options in a ChatGPT conversation. Amazon’s own announcement is clear that this is currently a pilot: “select advertisers in the U.S.” are testing it, with travel brand Delta Vacations named as an early participant.

On 16 September, OpenAI published its own update, “Reimagining advertising with AI,” confirming three things at once:

  • Sponsored Agents — after clicking certain ads, users can now have a follow-up conversation with an agent representing that business before following a link through to its website. This is described as being tested “with select advertisers in the United States” only.
  • A native Shopify app for ChatGPT Ads — Shopify merchants can create and manage ChatGPT ad campaigns directly from their Shopify dashboard, with product inventory already connected through Shopify’s Catalog feature, so there’s no separate feed to build. The app launched for US merchants first and OpenAI has confirmed it becomes available internationally from 23 September 2026.
  • A HubSpot integration — businesses can manage ChatGPT ad campaigns and track leads inside HubSpot, using the CRM data they already hold rather than treating ChatGPT as a disconnected reporting silo.

These sit on top of a geographic expansion that was already substantial. In the first week of September, OpenAI extended ChatGPT Ads into more than 30 additional countries across Europe, India, the Middle East and North Africa, taking the total number of live markets to roughly 50. Malaysia and Singapore are not among them, and none of Southeast Asia appears on OpenAI’s published market list.

Why This Is a Different Kind of Expansion

MRVS covered OpenAI’s move into Europe in August, when the story was straightforwardly geographic: more countries added to a list of places where a business could open an Ads Manager account. This latest round is different in kind, not just degree. Rather than only opening new markets one at a time, OpenAI is now stitching ChatGPT Ads into platforms businesses already use to sell and manage customers — Shopify for commerce, Amazon for existing ad-buying relationships, HubSpot for CRM. That’s a distribution strategy, not just a market-access one, and it tends to move faster than country-by-country sales expansion because it rides on infrastructure that already exists.

Where Malaysia Actually Stands

Confirmed: ChatGPT Ads cannot currently be bought by a business based in, or targeting, Malaysia or Singapore. OpenAI’s published market list, most recently updated in early September, does not include any Southeast Asian country. The Shopify app is US-only at launch, with international availability confirmed for 23 September — but “international” here hasn’t been defined market by market, and OpenAI hasn’t stated whether that includes merchants based in Malaysia or only extends the app into markets where ChatGPT Ads already runs.

Reasonably inferred: a Malaysian business that already runs a Shopify store selling into the US, UK or EU, or that already advertises through Amazon Ads targeting those markets, sits closer to being able to test ChatGPT Ads than a Malaysia-only business does — because the infrastructure connecting to ChatGPT now runs through platforms that business may already have configured for those markets.

Not confirmed: whether the 23 September Shopify expansion, or any future Amazon DSP rollout, will extend campaign-buying access to merchants and advertisers physically based in Malaysia, as opposed to simply reaching more of the roughly 50 markets where ads are already live. OpenAI has not published a Southeast Asia timeline for either integration.

What Malaysian Businesses Should Do Now

  • If the business runs a Shopify store selling into international markets where ChatGPT Ads is already live — the US, UK or most of the EU, for example — it’s worth checking the Shopify App Store after 23 September to see whether the ChatGPT Ads app is accessible from a Malaysia-based account, rather than assuming it isn’t.
  • If the business already runs Amazon Ads campaigns, keep an eye on the Amazon Ads console for any ChatGPT-related placement option, since Amazon has confirmed this is coming through its existing DSP relationship rather than a separate OpenAI sign-up.
  • If the business uses HubSpot, this is a preview of a pattern worth expecting elsewhere: ad platforms increasingly expect to plug into a CRM a business already runs, rather than being managed and reported on in isolation. Clean, well-structured CRM data becomes more valuable with each platform that connects to it.
  • For a Malaysia-only business with no existing Shopify, Amazon Ads or international footprint, there’s genuinely nothing to action yet. This remains a “monitor” situation rather than a “move budget” one.
  • Regardless of ad-buying access, it’s still worth checking how the business is described when someone asks ChatGPT to recommend a provider in its category — that visibility exists independently of whether paid placements are available in this market.

What to Watch Next

Three signals are worth tracking specifically. First, whether OpenAI names any Southeast Asian country in its next market-expansion announcement — the pace of the past six weeks suggests another update is likely before the end of the year. Second, whether the Shopify app’s “international” rollout on 23 September turns out to include merchant accounts based outside the current ad markets, which would be the clearest sign yet that platform integrations are moving faster than geographic sales expansion. Third, whether Amazon extends its ChatGPT pilot beyond “select US advertisers” to its broader advertiser base, since Amazon Ads already has an established presence among Malaysian sellers targeting cross-border marketplaces.

None of that requires a Malaysian business to do anything drastic this week. What it does argue for is having the underlying groundwork in reasonable shape before access arrives — accurate product data, clean conversion tracking, and CRM records that could plug into a new channel without weeks of setup. That’s the same groundwork that determines how well an existing Google Ads or Meta account performs today, and it’s where MRVS spends most of its time with clients: making sure paid media, product data and CRM data are connected properly, so that when a new platform like ChatGPT Ads does open up in this market, it’s a straightforward test rather than a scramble.