Sam Altman to visit India for AI summit
What's the story
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman is planning a trip to India in mid-February, according to TechCrunch. This will be his first visit in nearly a year. The trip comes as New Delhi prepares for the India AI Impact Summit 2026, its first major AI event. The summit will see global tech leaders like NVIDIA's Jensen Huang, Google's Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei attending along with Indian business moguls such as Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.
Strategic gatherings
OpenAI's private meetings and event during summit
Along with the summit, OpenAI is also planning some private meetings in New Delhi, where Altman is likely to be present. The company will host an event on February 19, inviting venture capitalists and industry executives. This comes as several other US companies are also planning side events around the summit week to engage India's enterprise customers, start-up ecosystem, and developer community.
Market expansion
Altman's visit coincides with AI market growth in India
Altman's trip comes as India has become a key growth market for American AI companies. Recently, Anthropic opened an office in Bengaluru and appointed former Microsoft India MD Irina Ghose as its country head. Google and Perplexity have also partnered with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel to offer premium AI subscriptions to millions of telecom users.
Business hurdles
OpenAI's growth and challenges in India
OpenAI has been expanding its presence in India by hiring for enterprise sales, technical deployment, and legal roles focused on AI regulation. The company is currently hiring for positions in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. However, despite ChatGPT being the most downloaded app in India and second largest by users globally, OpenAI has struggled to convert that demand into paid subscriptions. To tackle this issue it launched a cheaper "ChatGPT Go" plan last year under $5.
Future prospects
Altman's meetings and OpenAI's infrastructure plans in India
During his trip, Altman is expected to meet key tech executives, start-up founders, and government officials in the country. This is part of OpenAI's strategy to expand ChatGPT's enterprise adoption while also making it a mass-market product. The company has been engaging with various sectors in India such as education and media.
Infrastructure growth
OpenAI's potential infrastructure expansion in India
OpenAI is also considering India as a potential base for its infrastructure expansion. Last year, Google and Microsoft announced multi-billion-dollar investments in the country to expand their AI and cloud footprint. However, India's data-center ambitions face challenges such as inconsistent power supply, high energy costs, and water scarcity in some regions. These factors could slow down the development of AI infrastructure and increase operational costs for cloud providers.