OpenAI President Sam Altman Plans to Visit India as AI Leaders Meet in New Delhi: Sources

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to visit India in mid-February, his first visit to the country in nearly a year, TechCrunch has learned. The visit comes as New Delhi prepares to host a major artificial intelligence summit that is expected to attract top executives from Meta, Google and Anthropic.

India hosts its first major AI event – AI Impact Summit India 2026 – In New Delhi from February 16-20, it will bring together global technology leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei along with key Indian business figures like Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, as recommended by the summit. Website. Altman is not currently listed as a confirmed attendee.

But TechCrunch has learned that OpenAI is separately planning to host closed-door meetings on the sidelines of the summit in New Delhi, where Altman is expected to attend. The company is also hosting an OpenAI event in New Delhi on February 19, with venture capitalists and industry executives invited, a person familiar with the matter said.

Altman’s visit has not been publicly announced, and plans could still change, sources said.

Several other US companies are also planning to hold side events during Summit Week. Anthropic is hosting a developer day in Bengaluru on February 16, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Nvidia is also scheduled to hold an evening event in New Delhi during the week of the summit, people familiar with the plans told TechCrunch. (The GPU manufacturer did not respond to requests for comment.) The lineup of events underscores how global AI companies are seeking to engage Indian enterprise customers, the startup ecosystem, and the developer community.

The trip will mark Altman’s first visit to India in nearly a year Travel to the country In February 2025. Altman had previously said that Planned to come back later In 2025 after OpenAI’s August announcement of New Delhi officeBut that trip did not happen.

Altman’s visit also comes at a time when India has emerged as a key growth market for US AI companies. In recent months, Anthropy Advertise office in Bengaluru and He has been appointed as the former Managing Director of Microsoft India Irina Goss as its local president, while Google and Confusion It has partnered with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, respectively, to bundle premium AI subscriptions for millions of telecom users.

OpenAI has expanded its presence in India in recent months, Employment Across enterprise sales, technical publishing and legal roles focused on AI regulation. The company is currently listing openings in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. India has emerged as ChatGPT’s largest market in terms of downloads and Second largest by users. However, OpenAI has faced challenges converting this demand into paid subscriptions. Introducing a low-priced “ChatGPT Go” plan Last year at less than $5 and It is offered free of charge for a year To drive absorption.

Altman is expected to meet key technology executives, startup founders and government officials during the trip, the sources said, as OpenAI looks to expand enterprise adoption of ChatGPT while continuing to expand its reach as a mass-market product. The company deals with multiple sectors in India, including education and media, the people added.

OpenAI is also looking at India as a potential base for infrastructure expansion, sources said. Last year, both Google and Microsoft announced Billions of dollars investments In India for Expanding your AI and cloud footprint. But India’s data center ambitions Facing restrictionsincluding uneven energy availability, high energy costs, and water scarcity in many regions – factors that can slow the construction of AI infrastructure and raise operating costs for cloud providers.

However, the Indian government hopes that the upcoming summit will strengthen India’s position as a destination for large-scale investment in artificial intelligence. The country’s IT minister said in a recent interview that the event could help Attract up to $100 billion In investment. The federal government is also pushing local startups Build smaller models for domestic use cases, ultimately reducing reliance on US-based systems.

OpenAI, the Indian Ministry of Information Technology and the organizers of the AI ​​Summit did not respond to requests for comment.