Key Points :
OpenAI is opening its first office in New Delhi in 2025 and has already initiated local hiring.
India is now ChatGPT’s second largest market, with usage growing fourfold in the last one year.
Key Background :
OpenAI opening an office in New Delhi marks a milestone in its international expansion. OpenAI has formally registered a legal entity in India and begun recruiting as part of an attempt to establish a local presence. It had only a single staff member looking after its representation in the country until now, who managed public policy and partnership activities mainly.
India has quickly risen as one of OpenAI’s most vital markets. With close to a billion internet users, the country provides fertile ground for AI adoption. ChatGPT has become increasingly popular, with weekly active users growing fourfold in the past year. This makes India the second-largest market for OpenAI, after the United States, highlighting the region’s central role in the company’s future plans.
To cater to India’s price-conscious market, OpenAI launched its cheapest ChatGPT subscription at around $4.60 a month. The new plan is created to make sophisticated AI tools accessible to a broader audience. It supplements the current free and premium options and indicates that OpenAI will customize offerings according to local demand.
Establishing a local office in New Delhi is expected to bring with it numerous benefits. It will allow OpenAI to collaborate better with government offices, developers, businesses, and schools. Being on the ground, the company also aspires to be closer to India’s digital ambitions and be one of its leading contributors to the technology ecosystem.
There are issues nonetheless, especially in the competitive and regulatory spheres. OpenAI has been accused by some publishers of stealing its content without permission to use to train AI models, something which it emphatically denies. There is meanwhile fierce competition with tech giants and start-ups vying for the Indian market with price and product ferocity. Google’s Gemini and Perplexity, for instance, are providing premium features at no cost or minimal fees to attract users.
In spite of all these apprehensions, OpenAI considers its Indian headquarters as a vital milestone towards a long-term strategy. The company reiterated that it is committed to building AI “for India and with India.” The shift is not an act of business courtesy but strategic alignment with India’s digital economy, marking the way for further integration into one of the world’s rapidly evolving AI economies.
About the Author
Abhishek Roy
Abhishek Roy is a Managing Editor at Business Minds Media India.