Open AI CEO Sam Altman will speak at the annual Snowflake Summit, held in San Francisco, California on June 2, 2025.
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Openai is rapidly expanding its presence in India. This is one of the key markets for flagship ChatGpt products.
India is an attractive destination for our tech giants, and companies are Google In Meta In recent years, they have been betting on its huge and young population.
Openai CEO Sam Altman visited the country in February this year and met with the country’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to discuss collaboration. During the visit, Altman said India is the second largest market in Openai by number of users.
He later said that AI adoption in India was “it’s amazing to see.”
“We love seeing explosions of creativity. India is overtaking the world,” he told X earlier this year.
India told CNBC it is one of the Nick Patience, one of the globally fast-growing markets for ChatGpt, the AI practice lead at Tech Research and Analysis Futurum Group. “Openai’s India’s focus is on strategic moves to gain competitiveness,” he added.
This is a summary of how Openai is expanding in India.
chatgpt explosion
Openai’s core product, ChatGpt, is experiencing strong growth in India. According to Analytics Firm Appfigures, the app was downloaded 10.2 million times in India in August.
According to data from AppFigures, since its launch, CHATGPT has made 111 million downloads in India.
Although downloads are not necessarily comparable to daily or monthly users, the numbers highlight Openai’s growth trajectory in the country.
Downloads are far surpassed by rivals such as Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. The nearest challenger was confused, Appfigures said there were 6.4 million downloads in August.
Indian-specific products
User spending on ChatGPT is on the rise. To date, Indian users have spent $21.3 million on ChatGpt, a show in AppFigures data has been shown. In comparison, US users spent $784 million.
It underscores the fact that while the number of users in India is huge, it remains a price-sensitive market.
To address this, Openai launched ChatGpt Go, a low-cost Rs 399 in August – ($4.53) A monthly plan for the AI app.
“It’s a classic wedge strategy to acquire price-sensitive markets and build a user base that local players are difficult to drive away later,” says Futurum Group’s patience.
Infrastructure and Employment
According to Bloomberg, Openai is scouting locations in India for data centers with capacity of at least 1 gigawatt. The facility said CNBC was unable to verify the report, but will become part of Openai’s Stargate brand infrastructure push this week.
The ChatGpt developer last month opened a local office in the market and said it is currently promoting three sales roles in India.
Last month, they announced their educational programme in India. This included funding for research and provided 500,000 ChatGPT licenses to educators and students across the country.
India’s challenge
India doesn’t have a larger residential cultivation artificial intelligence company than Openai, but there are challengers in the form of domestic startups, including Sarvam AI and Krutrim, as well as other American tech giants like Google and Meta.
However, the continued geopolitical tension over trade between the US and India can cause complications if there is a backlash from New Delhi against American tech companies.
Openai is also trapped in a legal battle with India’s Asian News International, accusing ChatGPT developers of illegally using copyrighted material. This is a case of closely monitoring domestically over how copyright laws apply in the age of AI.
“Openai’s success in India is not guaranteed and is heavily dependent on its ability to navigate these legal and political hurdles,” says Futurum Group’s patience.
“The Indian market is huge, but diversity in languages and user needs poses challenges. The long-term impact on Openai’s ability to provide truly localized products and the talent of Indian AI remains uncertain.”
