OpenAI chief Sam Altman plans India visit as AI leaders converge in New Delhi: sources

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to travel to India in mid-February, marking his first visit to the country in nearly a year, according to people familiar with the matter. The trip is expected to coincide with a major artificial intelligence gathering in New Delhi that will bring together senior executives from some of the world's largest technology companies.

India is set to host its first large-scale AI-focused event, the India AI Impact Summit 2026, in New Delhi between February 16 and 20. The summit is expected to attract a high-profile lineup of global technology leaders, including Jensen Huang, Sundar Pichai, and Dario Amodei, as well as prominent Indian business figures such as Mukesh Ambani, according to the summit's website. Altman's name does not currently appear on the list of confirmed speakers or attendees.

However, people familiar with the plans said OpenAI is organising a series of closed-door meetings on the sidelines of the summit in New Delhi, where Altman is expected to attend. The company is also planning to host a private OpenAI event in the capital on February 19, with invitations extended to venture capital firms and senior industry executives, one source said.

Altman's visit has not been publicly announced, and the plans remain subject to change, the sources cautioned.

Several other U.S.-based AI companies are also organising events during the summit week, underscoring India's growing importance in the global AI landscape. Anthropic confirmed to TechCrunch that it will host a developers' day in Bengaluru on February 16.NVIDIA is also expected to hold an evening event in New Delhi during the same week, according to people familiar with the matter. However, the company did not respond to requests for comment. Together, the cluster of side events highlights how global AI firms are stepping up efforts to engage India's enterprise customers, startup ecosystem, and developer community.

If confirmed, the visit would be Altman's first to India since February 2025. He had previously said he planned to return later that year following OpenAI's August announcement of a New Delhi office, but that visit did not materialise.

Altman's anticipated trip comes as India has emerged as a critical growth market for U.S. AI companies. In recent months, Anthropic announced the opening of an office in Bengaluru and appointed former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose as its local head. At the same time, Google and Perplexity have entered partnerships with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, respectively, to bundle premium AI services for millions of mobile users.

OpenAI itself has been steadily expanding its footprint in India. In recent months, the company has been hiring across enterprise sales, technical deployment, and legal roles tied to AI regulation. Job listings are currently open in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. India has become ChatGPT's largest market by downloads and its second-largest by active users, though OpenAI has struggled to convert that scale into paid subscriptions. To address this, the company introduced a lower-cost ChatGPT Go plan last year, priced below $5, and offered it free for a year to encourage adoption.

During the visit, Altman is expected to meet with senior technology executives, startup founders, and government officials, the sources said. OpenAI aims to expand ChatGPT's adoption among Indian enterprises while continuing to grow its consumer reach. The company has been engaging with multiple sectors in the country, including education and media, according to people familiar with the discussions.

OpenAI is also evaluating India as a potential base for future infrastructure expansion, the sources added. Last year, both Google and Microsoft announced multibillion-dollar investments to expand their AI and cloud infrastructure in the country. However, India's ambitions to scale data-centre capacity face challenges, including uneven power supply, high energy costs, and water shortages in several regions — constraints that could slow infrastructure development and increase operating expenses for cloud providers.

Despite those hurdles, the Indian government remains optimistic that the upcoming summit will reinforce India's position as a destination for large-scale AI investment. The country's IT minister recently said the event could attract up to $100 billion in funding. At the same time, the federal government is encouraging domestic startups to develop smaller, locally optimised AI models to reduce long-term dependence on U.S.-based systems.

$100 BILLION worth investments likely at India AI impact summit next month ! https://t.co/1xWgu1V3NG — Chandra R. Srikanth (@chandrarsrikant) January 22, 2026

OpenAI, the Indian IT ministry, and the organisers of the India AI Impact Summit did not respond to requests for comment.