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
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