OpenAI is putting a dedicated senior leader in charge of India as it expands in a market it has described as its second-largest after the U.S. The company has appointed former Uber India and South Asia president Prabhjeet Singh as its first managing director for the country.
Singh announced his resignation from Uber on Friday and is set to join OpenAI in September. He will report to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s managing director for Asia-Pacific.
What Prabhjeet Singh will oversee
The new role gives OpenAI a single country leader for a broad set of priorities in India. According to the company, Singh will be responsible for performance across consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations.
That mix of responsibilities shows how OpenAI is treating India as more than a user-growth story. Consumer adoption matters, but the company is also organizing around businesses, institutions, policy conversations, and day-to-day local execution.
For a company selling artificial intelligence tools into fast-changing markets, those areas are closely connected. Wider ChatGPT use can create more demand from developers and companies. Enterprise adoption can require stronger local support. Partnerships can help OpenAI reach sectors where distribution, trust, and local relationships matter.
A larger local footprint is taking shape
Singh’s appointment follows a series of OpenAI moves in India. The company opened its first office in New Delhi last August. Earlier this year, it said it would establish new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
OpenAI has also built out senior policy and strategy capacity in the country. In 2024, it hired former Truecaller and Meta executive Pragya Misra to lead public policy and partnerships, before expanding her role to head of strategy and global affairs last year.
The company had earlier brought on former Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly as a senior adviser to support its engagement with the Indian government on AI policy.
Together, those hires suggest a deliberate India strategy: build local offices, add policy experience, expand partnerships, and now appoint a country managing director with a mandate that spans growth and operations.
Partnerships point to multiple AI entry points
Over the past few months, OpenAI has struck partnerships in India across higher education, enterprise payments, AI-powered commerce, and web streaming. It has also become part of the country’s growing data center build-out.
The company has pointed to India’s rapidly growing adoption of ChatGPT as a sign of the market’s importance. Indian conglomerates Reliance and Tata Group are also among its early partners in the market.
Those categories cover very different kinds of AI use. Higher education can shape how students, researchers, and institutions use generative AI. Enterprise payments and AI-powered commerce point toward business workflows. Web streaming suggests consumer-facing applications where AI could become part of digital services.
The data center link matters for a separate reason. As AI products spread, the supporting infrastructure becomes part of the strategic picture. The source does not detail OpenAI’s specific data center role, but it identifies the company as part of India’s growing build-out.
Hiring shows demand for local execution
OpenAI has also been increasing hiring in India. The company has listed openings including AI deployment engineers, developer experience engineers, a developer marketing lead, a partner director, and solutions engineers.
Those roles map closely to the responsibilities now attached to Singh’s position. AI deployment engineers and solutions engineers can support organizations using OpenAI technology. Developer experience engineers and a developer marketing lead can help reach India’s developer base. A partner director can support commercial and ecosystem relationships.
This is consistent with India’s broader position in the AI market described in the source. The country has become one of the key battlegrounds for U.S. AI companies, supported by its vast developer base, more than a billion internet users, and surging demand for generative AI.
Competition is rising in India’s AI market
OpenAI is not the only U.S. AI company investing in India. Rival Anthropic opened its India office in Bengaluru in late 2025. Earlier this year, Anthropic named former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose as its India head.
That comparison makes Singh’s appointment more significant. OpenAI is moving from a pattern of offices, advisers, partnerships, and hiring into a more formal country leadership structure.
The appointment does not by itself define the company’s full India roadmap. But based on the responsibilities attached to the role, OpenAI is positioning India as a market where product adoption, enterprise sales, partnerships, regulation, and operations all need dedicated local leadership.