February 7, 2025 – On Wednesday local time, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, revealed that India has emerged as the second-largest market for OpenAI in terms of user count, experiencing a threefold increase in users over the past year.
According to Reuters, Altman met with Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Indian Minister of Information Technology, to discuss plans for creating a low-cost AI ecosystem in India.
Vaishnaw stated that he had a “super cool discussion” with Altman about India’s strategy to “build the entire AI stack – GPUs, models, and applications,” adding that OpenAI is willing to collaborate on three fronts.
“I think India should do everything. I think India should be one of the leaders of the AI revolution,” said Altman. This stands in contrast to his previous skepticism last year, when he questioned whether the country could establish a substantial AI model with a budget of just $10 million (currently approximately 72.879 million yuan).
In a partial discussion video released with Altman, Vaishnaw commented, “Our country (India) sent a mission to the moon at a cost much lower than many other nations. Why can’t we achieve a model that costs just a fraction of theirs?”
Prior to his visit to India, Altman visited Japan and South Korea, where he secured agreements with SoftBank Group and Kakao, respectively. While in Seoul, he also discussed the Stargate AI data center project with SoftBank and Samsung.
