OpenAI Appoints Former Uber India Chief Prabhjeet Singh as First Managing Director for India

Jun 26, 2026

OpenAI has appointed former Uber India chief Prabhjeet Singh as its first managing director for India, signaling a major expansion in its second-largest market. Singh will join in September 2026 to lead growth, partnerships, and operations. The move intensifies competition with rivals like Anthropic in India's burgeoning AI sector, a key battleground due to its vast developer base and over a billion internet users.

Prabhjeet Singh appointment

▪Prabhjeet Singh's responsibilities will include consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations.
▪OpenAI appointed former Uber India and South Asia president Prabhjeet Singh as its first managing director for India.
▪As managing director, Prabhjeet Singh will be OpenAI's most senior leader in India.
▪Prabhjeet Singh will join OpenAI in September 2026 and report to Kiran Mani, the company's managing director for Asia-Pacific.

OpenAI India expansion

▪OpenAI considers India its second-largest market after the U.S.
▪In 2024, OpenAI hired former Truecaller and Meta executive Pragya Misra to lead public policy and partnerships in India.
▪OpenAI opened its first office in New Delhi in August 2025 and announced plans for offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru in early 2026.
▪OpenAI also hired former Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly as a senior adviser for government engagement on AI policy.

Strategic partnerships

▪Indian conglomerates Reliance and Tata Group are among OpenAI's early partners in the country.
▪OpenAI has become part of India's growing data center build-out.
▪OpenAI has established partnerships in India spanning higher education, enterprise payments, AI-powered commerce, and web streaming.

India AI market competition

▪India is a key market for U.S. AI companies due to its large developer base, over a billion internet users, and high demand for generative AI.
▪OpenAI's competitor Anthropic opened an office in Bengaluru in late 2025.
▪In early 2026, Anthropic appointed former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose as its head for India.