ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is preparing to open a corporate office in New Delhi within the coming months. This will be the company’s first formal base in India, and the company has already started hiring to expand its local team, as per a report by Reuters. Jake Wilczynski, APAC head at OpenAI, on LinkedIn, stated, “OpenAI is expanding to India! Later this year, we’ll open our first India office in New Delhi.”
He also stated that weekly active users of ChatGPT in India increased by more than 4x in just the past year, and it ranks among the top 5 developer markets globally on the OpenAI platform. He also talked about the opportunity, stating India has the largest population of students on ChatGPT worldwide.
Currently, OpenAI, as per the reports, has only one Indian employee- Pragya Misra, who heads public policy and partnerships and joined last year. Now, with the larger workforce on the ground, the company seems to be expanding the operations and aims to deepen its collaboration with the government, businesses, and developers in India, home to 1.4 billion people and a strong base of technology talent.
The company has pledged to work alongside the federal government on its $1.2 billion IndiaAI Mission, which seeks to develop both large and small language models tailored to the region. The planned expansion also highlights OpenAI’s intent to play a role in shaping early AI regulations in a market that offers vast opportunities but has historically posed challenges for global tech firms.
As per the company, India is currently the second largest market for ChatGPT in terms of users. The company has also introduced an affordable monthly subscription plan called ChatGPT Go priced at Rs 399 for Indian users, aiming to increase its paid user base while offering better value to the Indian users. However, the tech giant will continue to offer free tier and premium plans as usual.
Additionally, ChatGPT has also stated that OpenAI will host its first developer day in India later this year.