OpenAI to establish first India office in New Delhi this year

New Delhi: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, will set up its first India office in New Delhi later this year, extending its presence in its second-largest market by user numbers, according to Reuters.

The Microsoft-backed firm has been registered as a legal entity in India and has started hiring for a local team, it said in a statement to Reuters on Friday.

India has emerged as a key market for OpenAI, where it this week introduced its lowest-priced monthly plan of $4.60, aimed at nearly one billion internet users in the country.

The company is facing legal disputes in India, with some news publishers and book companies alleging that their content has been used without permission to train ChatGPT. OpenAI has denied the allegations.

“Opening our first office and building a local team is an important first step in our commitment to make advanced AI more accessible across the country and to build AI for India, and with India,” OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said in the statement, as per the report.

Competition in India’s AI sector is intensifying, with Google’s Gemini and startup Perplexity offering their services, in some cases providing advanced plans free of charge to users.

According to the report, India accounts for the largest share of ChatGPT’s student users, while weekly active users in the country have quadrupled over the past year, OpenAI said.