OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to visit India amid govt's National AI push

As India prepares to step up its game in the world of AI with the National AI Mission, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman will reportedly visit India on February 5. He is expected to meet government officials, entrepreneurs and key investors. The visit to India, his second after 2023, is an extension of his tour to Japan, South Korea, the UAE, Germany and France. He is also expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, media reports citing sources suggest.

Altman's visit to India comes close on the heels of a major development coming out of China, where an upstart company, DeepSeek, came up with an AI model that works on par and, in some cases better, than OpenAI's advanced ChatGPT 4 AI model. In just about a month, DeepSeek's AI model R1 topped the Apple Store download chart, causing a massive drop in the shares of key chip manufacturers and wiping out more than $1 trillion out of their market cap. Trained and developed with just a fraction ($5.6 million) of what OpenAI pumped in to bring ChatGPT 4 to life ($100 million), DeepSeek also caught the attention of the Indian government, with Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw saying the Centre plans to host DeepSeek on Indian servers to address data privacy concerns and power India's AI capabilities.

During his previous visit to India, Altman met Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi and the two discussed the potential of AI in helping India achieve its 'developed economy' status faster. Altman's visit to India also bears significance in the wake of China expanding its AI capabilities. For OpenAI, India is the second biggest market after the US. To counter China's influence, Altman may be looking at opportunities to scale its operations in the country.

Not just India, OpenAI is partnering with several companies in Asia and Europe to expand its operations. During Altman's ongoing visit, the world's biggest AI company tied up with Japan's SoftBank to form a JV, which will help boost the company's AI services across Japan.

Additionally, South Korea’s leading mobile communication company and the provider of KakaoTalk, Korea’s most popular messaging service, has also announced a strategic collaboration with OpenAI. The tie-up will focus on developing and enhancing Kakao’s services by leveraging OpenAI’s advanced AI tech, tailored to the unique needs of Korean users, and making it more accessible. Key areas of focus include: Kanana, a user-friendly “AI Agent”, which will be powered by OpenAI’s advanced models; the expansion of OpenAI’s integration within Kakao’s digital ecosystem; and the deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise to employees.

Amid the global race for AI, India has also been gearing up to showcase its AI prowess, with the government's India AI Mission. On January 30, 2025, Vaishnaw said India would soon have its large language model (LLM). “Very soon, we will also have our LLM. In the India AI computing facility, we have received resources to power 18,000 GPUs. Anyone looking to invest in an AI computing facility now has a platform through the India AI Mission,” he said at the Odisha Utkarsh Summit.

He said under the India AI Mission, which was approved in March 2024, the government has created the first and biggest pillar of the India AI Mission—the Common Compute Facility. "The empanelment process, completed last week, has yielded excellent results. Against a target of 10,000 GPUs, we have empanelled 18,693, and these are top-tier GPUs. Among them, 12,896 are H100s, 1,480 are H200s, and 742 are MI325 and MI300X GPUs,” the minister said.

Taking on those criticising India's AI approach, the Union minister said some people raised questions over spending on the India AI mission, but China's DeepSeek was able to make a really powerful model at just $5.5 million. "All thanks to smart planning," he said.