After Anthropic, OpenAI targets Mumbai, Bengaluru expansion

Days after US-based AI firm Anthropic formally opened its office in Bengaluru,rival OpenAI announced plans to establish new offices in Bengaluru and Mumbai later this year, signalling an intensified push into one of its fastest-growing global markets.The expansion is part of a broader nationwide initiative titled “OpenAI for India,” aimed at deepening the company’s engagement with enterprise customers, developers, startups and public sector partners. OpenAI already maintains a presence in New Delhi and said the new offices will strengthen its ability to serve users and partners across the country.
The announcement was made at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in Delhi, where the company outlined plans to expand access to artificial intelligence, build sovereign infrastructure, accelerate enterprise adoption and nurture the local ecosystem.India is now home to over 100 million weekly users of ChatGPT, including students, teachers, developers and entrepreneurs, underscoring the country’s rapid adoption of AI tools.OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said India is already leading the way in AI adoption and, with its deep technology talent pool and strong government support, is well positioned to help shape the future of democratic AI at scale.“Through OpenAI for India, the aim is to build the infrastructure, skills and local partnerships needed to build AI with India, for India and in India,” Altman said.
The development comes as Anthropic positions India as its second-largest market globally for its Claude models. The company said its India run-rate revenue has doubled since its October 2025 expansion announcement, reflecting strong uptake among enterprises, digital-first firms and startups building on its AI systems.
Data Centre Push Under Stargate Initiative
As part of the global Stargate initiative, OpenAI is partnering with the Tata Group to develop AI-ready data centre capacity in India, designed to support data residency, security and long-term domestic capability.OpenAI will become the first customer of Tata Consultancy Services’ HyperVault data centre business. TCS said the partnership will begin with 100 megawatts (MW) of capacity, with the potential to scale up to 1 gigawatt (GW) over time.
The infrastructure will enable OpenAI’s models to run securely within India, offering lower latency while meeting data residency, compliance and security requirements for mission-critical and government workloads.As part of the collaboration, the Tata Group will deploy ChatGPT Enterprise across its workforce, while TCS will adopt Codex for AI-native software development.
OpenAI also highlighted partnerships with leading Indian companies including JioHotstar, Eternal, Pine Labs, Cars24, HCLTech, PhonePe, CRED and MakeMyTrip, as it broadens enterprise integration.In the education sector, more than 100,000 ChatGPT Edu licences are set to be rolled out through partnerships with institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.With global AI players accelerating their India strategies, the race to anchor enterprise, public sector and developer ecosystems in the country is gathering pace, positioning India as a central battleground in the next phase of AI expansion.

(Business Correspondent)