OpenAI poaches Uber India chief to lead its biggest market outside the US

OpenAI's appointment of Prabhjeet Singh as its first managing director for India marks a significant investment in the country, where the company has already established a presence with offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Singh's role will encompass various aspects of OpenAI's operations in India, including consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations. This move is notable given OpenAI's rapid expansion in India, with the company having hired former Truecaller and Meta executive Pragya Misra to lead public policy and partnerships and former Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly as a senior adviser to help establish its engagement with the Indian government on AI policy. OpenAI has also struck partnerships with Indian conglomerates Reliance and Tata Group and has ramped up hiring in the country, with openings including AI deployment engineers and developer experience engineers.

The appointment of Singh reflects OpenAI's growing focus on India, which has emerged as a key battleground for US AI companies due to its vast developer base, more than a billion internet users, and surging demand for generative AI. Rival Anthropic has also opened an office in Bengaluru and named former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose as its India head, highlighting the intense competition in the Indian AI market. The Indian government's growing interest in AI policy and the country's rapidly expanding data center build-out further underscore the strategic importance of India for OpenAI and its competitors.

Singh's appointment comes as OpenAI is looking to expand its presence in India, where the company has seen rapid adoption of its ChatGPT product. With Singh at the helm, OpenAI will likely focus on deepening its partnerships with Indian conglomerates and expanding its operations in the country. However, the company will also face increased competition from Anthropic and other AI players, which will require Singh to navigate complex regulatory and operational challenges. As OpenAI continues to scale its presence in India, it will be interesting to watch how Singh leverages his experience in the Indian market to drive growth and adoption of OpenAI's products.