source: techcrunch ai: openai poaches uber india chief to lead its biggest market outside the us
level: business
openai has named former uber india and south asia president prabhjeet singh as its first managing director for india. he will start in september and report to kiran mani, managing director for asia pacific. singh will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations in what openai calls its second-largest market after the u.s.
the move follows openai's recent expansion in india, including opening an office in new delhi last august and plans for offices in mumbai and bengaluru. the company has also hired former truecaller and meta executive pragya misra for public policy and strategy, and former twitter india head rishi jaitly as a senior adviser. openai has formed partnerships in higher education, enterprise payments, ai commerce, and data centers, while ramping up hiring for roles like ai deployment engineers and developer marketing.
india has become a key battleground for u.s. ai firms due to its large developer base, over a billion internet users, and rising demand for generative ai. rival anthropic opened its india office in bengaluru in late 2025 and appointed former microsoft india managing director irina ghose as its india head. openai's appointment signals its intent to capture a larger share of this fast-growing market.
why it matters: india's vast user base and developer community make it a critical market for ai adoption, influencing global product strategy and enterprise ai deployment.
source: techcrunch ai: openai poaches uber india chief to lead its biggest market outside the us