Sam Altman plans India visit as OpenAI targets enterprise growth at AI Impact Summit 2026

OpenAI chief Sam Altman plans India visit as AI leaders converge 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 AI summit expected to draw top executives from Meta, Google, and Anthropic. India is hosting its first major AI event -- the India AI Impact Summit 2026 -- in New Delhi between February 16 and 20, bringing together global technology leaders including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei alongside key Indian business figures like Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, per the summit's 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 be present. The company is also hosting an OpenAI event in New Delhi on February 19, with venture capitalists and industry executives invited, one person familiar with the matter said. Altman's visit has not been publicly announced and plans could still change, the sources said. Several other U.S. companies are also planning side events around the summit week. Anthropic is hosting a developers' day in Bengaluru on February 16, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Nvidia is also set to hold an evening event in New Delhi during the summit week, people familiar with the plans told TechCrunch. (The GPU-maker did not respond to requests for comment.) The cluster of events underscores how global AI firms are seeking to engage India's enterprise customers, startup ecosystem, and developer community. The trip would mark Altman's first visit to India in nearly a year, after he travelled to the country in February 2025. Altman had previously said he planned to return later in 2025 following OpenAI's August announcement of a New Delhi office, but that trip did not take place. Altman's visit also comes as India has emerged as a key growth market for American AI companies. In recent months, Anthropic announced an office in Bengaluru and named former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose as its local head, while Google and Perplexity have struck partnerships with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, respectively, to bundle premium AI subscriptions for millions of telecom users. OpenAI has been expanding its India presence in recent months, hiring across enterprise sales, technical deployment 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 biggest market by downloads and second-largest by users. Still, OpenAI has faced challenges converting that demand into paid subscriptions, introducing a lower-priced "ChatGPT Go" plan last year priced under $5 and offering it free for a year to drive uptake. Altman is expected to meet key tech executives, startup founders, and government officials during the trip, the sources said, as OpenAI looks to expand ChatGPT's enterprise adoption while still broadening its reach as a mass-market product. The company has been engaging 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, the sources said. Last year, both Google and Microsoft announced multi-billion-dollar investments in India to expand their AI and cloud footprint. But India's data-center ambitions face constraints including uneven power availability, high energy costs and water scarcity in several regions -- factors that could slow the build-out of AI infrastructure and raise operating costs for cloud providers. Still, the Indian government is hopeful that the upcoming summit will cement India's status as a destination for large-scale AI investment. The country's IT minister said in a recent interview that the event could help attract as much as $100 billion in investment. The federal government is also pushing domestic startups to build smaller models for local use cases, eventually reducing reliance on U.S.-based systems. OpenAI, India's IT ministry, and the AI summit's organizers did not respond to requests for comment.

OpenAI's Sam Altman eyes India visit as global AI leaders gather in New Delhi

Altman's visit, his first to India in nearly a year, will coincide with the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi from February 16-20, which will feature Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani. However, TechCrunch has said that Altman's attendance is not yet confirmed. Other tech firms, too, are planning parallel events that week: Anthropic is hosting a developers' meet in Bengaluru on February 16, while Nvidia is lining up an evening programme in New Delhi. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is expected to visit India in mid-February, marking his first trip to the country in almost a year, according to media reports. The timing aligns with the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, running from February 16 to 20. According to the event's website, attendees include leading figures such as Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, Google boss Sundar Pichai, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, along with prominent Indian industrialists, including Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani. However, TechCrunch reported that Altman is not listed as a confirmed attendee. Also, since the visit has not been publicly announced, arrangements remain subject to change. Alongside the summit, OpenAI is said to be planning a closed-door gathering in New Delhi on February 19 for senior executives and venture capital (VC) investors. Other technology firms are also preparing parallel events during the same week, with Anthropic confirming a developers' meet in Bengaluru on February 16 and Nvidia scheduling an evening programme in the capital. The proposed visit highlights India's rising importance for global artificial intelligence (AI) companies. The country has become ChatGPT's biggest market by downloads and the second-largest by user numbers worldwide. To accelerate adoption, OpenAI last year rolled out a budget "ChatGPT Go" plan priced below $5 in India and offered it free for a year. Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft have pledged multi-billion-dollar investments in AI and cloud capacity. Anthropic has set up an office in Bengaluru, and OpenAI is recruiting across sales, deployment, and legal functions in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman May Participate in the India AI Impact Summit 2026

Obviously Altman cannot be absent when Sundar Pichai, Dario Amodei and Jensen Huang are coming to liaise with officials and state governments OpenAI CEO Sam Altman could be in India mid-February on what would be hist first visit in nearly 12 months. During the trip, he could be sharing the stage with other tech stalwarts from the United States such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Anthropic boss Dario Amodei during the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. However, published media reports suggest that Altman's sole purpose is not just to attend the event, that showcases India's rising capabilities in the field of AI. Suggestions are rife that he would be meeting Indian industry leaders, politicians and administrators behind closed-doors. The India AI Impact Summit 2026 would witness other tech leaders such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google Deepmind head Dennis Hassabis, Accenture CEO Juliet Sweet, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, besides a host of Indian business leaders. Why Altman's visit to India isn't surprising Given that OpenAI competitors already have business relations with Indian companies like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, it is highly likely that the OpenAI CEO would spend some time seeking partnerships. Not to mention newer avenues to push his company's agenda into enterprise AI with the focus largely being on agentic AI solutions. Additionally, some reports in the Western media suggest that Sam Altman could also be hosting a separate OpenAI event in New Delhi on February 19 in order to touch base with venture capitalists and industry leaders. However, these reports also noted that Altman's visit is not yet announced publicly and plans may alter any time. OpenAI is not the only one planning events on the sidelines of the main one. Close competitor Anthropic has announced a one-day developers' conference in Bengaluru on February 16, while there are rumours that Nvidia could be doing something similar in New Delhi between February 16 and 20. Has Altman ever visited India in the past? The last time Altman had visited India was last February though he did have some messages for the country when OpenAI launched ChatGPT Go as part of a strategic push to expand in the country. India is the second largest market for OpenAI and is soon expected to surpass the US. It's incredibly fast-growing. What users are doing with AI in India is quite remarkable," Altman had said at the launch of GPT-5 last August. Though he had committed last February that he would come back later during 2025, that visit never materialised though Altman did announce that the company would have a New Delhi office soon. Given that Google already has a large presence in India and Anthropic is also growing, Altman's visit is not surprising. As he said so himself, India is a growing enterprise market for AI businesses and its startup ecosystem could well be where the next bright ideas around the industry emerge from. Not to mention the growing community of technology developers that Indian academic institutions churn out each year. The company has already expanded its operations in India with hirings across technical deployment at the enterprise level, lawyers for keeping tabs of local AI regulations and a sales team to expand its horizons in the enterprise segment. A key discussion may revolve around AI infrastructure Another crucial area that Altman could be aggressively exploring would be in the realm of infrastructure expansion in India. While Google is planning a $15 billion investment in Andhra Pradesh, Microsoft too has proposed an investment of $17.5 billion over the next three to four years to fund data centres and skilling programs. Given this scenario, it wouldn't be surprising if OpenAI seeks out rival states in the southern part of India for establishing their own infrastructure. Keep a watch on how states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and to a smaller extent Kerala respond to such overtures from the global AI leaders. In fact, the stage for such an opportunity was set by IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw who believes that India could potentially attract $100 billion from the upcoming event in February. He was speaking to MoneyControl on the sidelines of the recently concluded World Economic Forum summit at Davos, Switzerland.

OpenAI's India Playbook: Altman, Enterprise Growth & Summit Week Events

OpenAI Bets on India: Sam Altman's Visit Signals a Bigger Push in the Global AI Race OpenAI is reportedly sharpening its focus on India. According to , CEO Sam Altman plans a visit to India to attend the AI summit in February. This visit may help India emerge as a critical market for artificial intelligence, both as a fast-growing market and a strategic adoption of AI. A group of renowned AI leaders is expected to visit India during the Summit, but the presence of Sam Altman will take things to another level. Assumptions say that Altman's coming to India will be part of OpenAI's broader strategy to expand enterprise relationships, engage with policymakers, and align with India's ambitions to become a global AI powerhouse.