OpenAI to open its first Indian office later this year
With India’s massive pool of engineering talent, it’s not hard to imagine future AI tools being shaped as much in New Delhi or Bengaluru as in San Francisco.
The global AI race is getting a lot more interesting, and this time, India is at the center of it.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has announced plans to open its first Indian office later this year in New Delhi. This is happening just a few days after the company rolled out its first India-specific subscription plan, ChatGPT Go, priced at ₹399 (about $4.75) per month.
For OpenAI, which is competing with the likes of Google, Meta, and Perplexity, India is simply too big to ignore. The country reportedly has 1.4 billion people, with over 800 million of them being internet-savvy (via Statista).
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
OpenAI has been building the groundwork for its Indian playbook since last year, from appointing Pragya Misra, formerly of Truecaller and Meta, as its public policy and partnerships lead in India, and ex-Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly as a senior advisor to help with government relations.
So now, opening the office seems like the right direction in building OpenAI's presence in India.
The strategy also comes at a good time when the country is leaning heavily into artificial intelligence (AI) as part of its $1.2 billion IndiaAI Mission, which aims to build domestic language models and ensure that the benefits of AI reach citizens across the country.
But at the same time, OpenAI faces challenges in this market. India is notoriously price-sensitive, which is why the budget-friendly ChatGPT Go plan was introduced to lure millions of new users. Competitors aren’t standing still either. Just days earlier, Perplexity partnered with telecom giant Bharti Airtel to give its 360 million subscribers free access to Perplexity Pro for a year.
Kelechi Edeh
The company also has to face the unresolved issues around content use. Indian news agency ANI and other publishers have accused the company of scraping copyrighted material without permission, leaving a lawsuit still hanging over its head.
Still, the timing couldn’t be better for OpenAI. With India as ChatGPT’s second-largest user base globally, this is what the company needs to convert usage into revenue.
OpenAI has also already begun integrating itself into India’s tech community. It is hosting its first Education Summit this month, followed by its inaugural Developer Day in India later this year, where it hopes to build closer ties with startups, enterprises, and policymakers.
With India’s massive pool of engineering talent, it’s not hard to imagine future AI tools being shaped as much in New Delhi or Bengaluru as in San Francisco.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
