OpenAI has announced plans to open its first office in India, just days after launching a ChatGPT plan tailored for Indian users, as it looks to tap into the country’s rapidly growing AI market.
On Friday, the company said it would set up a local team in India and open a corporate office in the capital, New Delhi, in the coming months. The move builds on OpenAI’s recent hiring efforts in the region. In April 2024, the company appointed former Truecaller and Meta executive Pragya Mishra as its public policy and partnerships lead in India. OpenAI also brought on former Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly as a senior advisor to help facilitate discussions with the Indian government on AI policy.
India — the world’s second-largest internet and smartphone market after China — is a natural fit for OpenAI, which is competing with tech giants like Google and Meta, as well as AI upstarts like Perplexity, all looking to tap into the country’s massive user base.
The company said that it has started hiring a local team to “focus on strengthening relationships with local partners, governments, businesses, developers, and academic institutions.” It plans to get feedback from Indian users to make its products relevant for the local audience and even build features and tools specifically for the country.
“Opening our first office and building a local team is an important first step in our commitment to make advanced AI more accessible across the country and to build AI for India, and with India,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in a statement.
OpenAI also announced it would host its first Education Summit in India this month and its first Developer Day in the country later this year.
While India is clearly an essential market for OpenAI, the company faces key challenges — including how to convert free users into paying subscribers. Like other major AI players, it must naviga …