Openai announced plans to open its first office in India a few days after launching its CHATGPT plan tailored for Indian users.
On Friday, the company said it would establish a local team in India and open its headquarters in the capital, New Delhi in the coming months. The move is based on Openai’s recent employment efforts in the region. In April 2024, the company appointed former Truecaller and Meta executive Pragya Misra to lead the public policy and partnership in India. Openai also brought former Twitter Indian Principal Rishi Jaitly as a senior advisor to help promote discussions with the Indian government on AI policy.
India – India, the world’s second largest internet and smartphone market after China, is naturally suited to Openai, competing with high-tech giants like Google and Meta and AI startups like baffling.
The company said it has begun to hire local teams to focus on strengthening relationships with local partners, governments, businesses, developers and academic institutions. It plans to get feedback from Indian users to create products relevant to local audiences, and build features and tools specifically for the country.
“Opening the first office and building a local team is an important first step in our commitment to making AD’s AI more accessible nationwide and building Indian and Indian AI,” said Sam Altman, CEO of Openai, in a statement.
Openai also announced that it will hold its first education summit in India this month and will host its first developer day in the country later this year.
While India is clearly an essential market for Openai, the company faces important challenges, such as how to convert free users into paying subscribers. Like other major AI players, you will need to navigate the monetization hurdles in the price-sensitive South Asian market.
TechCrunch Events
San Francisco
|
October 27th-29th, 2025
Earlier this week, the company introduced a $5 ChatGPT plan called ChatGpt Go, priced at £399 a month (approximately $4.75) and became India’s first ChatGPT plan to attract the masses. This comes days after Arch Rival Perplexity partnered with Indian telephone company giant Bharti Airtel to allow more than 360 million Airtel subscribers access Perplexity Pro for 12 months.
Openai also faces challenges in integrating with Indian companies. In November, Indian news agency Asian News International (ANI) sued Openai, allegedly using copyrighted news content without permission. In January, an Indian publishing group joined the case.
Nevertheless, the Indian government is actively promoting AI across the sector, aiming to strengthen the country’s position on the global AI map.
“India has all the elements to become a global AI leader. There is an incredible technical talent, a world-class developer ecosystem and strong government support through India’s mission,” Altman said.
India is not the first Asian office location in open rai. The company previously opened offices in markets such as Japan, Singapore and Korea. Openai’s rival humanity also saw Japan as a market with a higher priority than India on the continent, and recently established an office in Tokyo rather than New Delhi.
One reason why these AI companies don’t prioritize India as an early market is that they have difficulty protecting their clients, a Silicon Valley-based investor source recently told TechCrunch.
“The open decision to establish a presence in India reflects the country’s growing leadership in digital innovation and AI adoption,” India’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishno said in a prepared statement. “As part of our India Mission, we are building an ecosystem for trusted and inclusive AI. We welcome Openai’s partnership to advance this vision to bring the benefits of AI to all citizens.”
We are constantly aiming to evolve and you can help us by providing insights into TechCrunch and your perspective and feedback on our coverage and events! Fill in this research to let us know how we are doing and get the opportunity to win an award in return!
