OpenAI’s Expansion into India: A Strategic Move
India has emerged as OpenAI’s second-largest market, just behind the U.S., with a significant growth in ChatGPT users over the past year. According to CEO Sam Altman, the company will open its first office in New Delhi later this year, marking a crucial step in its global expansion strategy. Altman announced the news on X, expressing his excitement about the rapid adoption of A.I. in India, which has seen a 4x growth in ChatGPT users over the past year.
Altman has visited India multiple times in recent years, including a 2023 meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where he praised the country’s rapid adoption of A.I. and its potential to become a global A.I. leader. OpenAI has also partnered with the Indian government’s IndiaAI Mission, an initiative to expand A.I. access nationwide.
Market Competition and Growth
India has become a key market for A.I. companies, with Google and Meta already operating major A.I. products and R&D hubs in the country. Perplexity AI, founded by Indian entrepreneur Aravind Srinivas, is also seeing explosive growth, with its monthly active users in India jumping 640 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025. This growth far outpaces ChatGPT’s 350 percent growth in the same period.
Both OpenAI and Perplexity have launched WhatsApp bots globally, aiming to integrate A.I.-powered chat and search into everyday messaging. Given WhatsApp’s ubiquity in India, this move could prove pivotal in the market. Srinivas wrote on LinkedIn in May, “Perplexity on WhatsApp is a super convenient way to use A.I. when in a flight. Flight WiFi supports messaging apps the best. And WhatsApp has been heavily optimized for this because it grew to support countries where connectivity wasn’t the best.”
OpenAI’s Global Footprint
OpenAI has been steadily expanding its global footprint, adding offices in London, Dublin, Paris, Brussels, Munich, Tokyo, and Singapore over the past year. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and also maintains U.S. offices in New York and Seattle. With its new office in New Delhi, OpenAI is poised to further strengthen its presence in the Indian market.
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Image Source: observer.com
