OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is scheduled to visit India in mid-February, marking his first trip to the country in nearly a year. This visit coincides with India's preparation to host a significant artificial intelligence gathering, the India AI Impact Summit 2026, slated for February 16 to 20 in New Delhi. The summit is designed to bring together prominent global technology leaders, including Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Dario Amodei of Anthropic, alongside key Indian business figures such as Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, as confirmed by the summit's official website.

While Sam Altman is not currently listed as a confirmed attendee for the main summit, TechCrunch has reported that OpenAI is independently organizing closed-door meetings on the sidelines of the event in New Delhi, where Altman is anticipated to be present. Furthermore, OpenAI is hosting its own event in New Delhi on February 19, with invitations extended to venture capitalists and industry executives. This array of events highlights a strategic move by global AI firms to engage actively with India's expanding enterprise customer base, dynamic startup ecosystem, and vibrant developer community.

The current landscape sees several other U.S. companies also planning auxiliary events around the summit week. Anthropic has confirmed plans for a developers' day in Bengaluru on February 16, and Nvidia is reportedly setting up an evening event in New Delhi during the same week. This concentrated activity underscores India's rising significance as a crucial growth market for American AI companies. Recent developments include Anthropic's establishment of an office in Bengaluru and the appointment of former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose as its local head. Similarly, Google and Perplexity have forged partnerships with major Indian telecom providers, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel respectively, to offer premium AI subscriptions to millions of users.

OpenAI has been steadily expanding its footprint in India, actively hiring for roles spanning enterprise sales, technical deployment, and legal positions focused on AI regulation. The company currently lists openings in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. India has emerged as a particularly strong market for ChatGPT, ranking as its biggest market by downloads and the second largest by overall users. Despite this widespread adoption, OpenAI has encountered challenges in converting user demand into paid subscriptions, leading to the introduction of a lower-priced "ChatGPT Go" plan, priced under $5 and offered free for a year to stimulate uptake.

During his visit, Altman is expected to hold meetings with key technology executives, startup founders, and government officials. These discussions are aimed at furthering OpenAI's objectives of expanding ChatGPT's enterprise adoption while simultaneously broadening its reach as a mass-market product. The company has demonstrated engagement across various sectors in India, including education and media. Beyond market expansion, OpenAI is also exploring India as a potential hub for infrastructure development, building on earlier multi-billion-dollar investments by Google and Microsoft to enhance their AI and cloud infrastructure in the country.

However, India's ambitions for data center expansion face several constraints, including inconsistent power availability, elevated energy costs, and water scarcity in various regions. These factors could potentially slow the development of AI infrastructure and increase operational costs for cloud providers. Nevertheless, the Indian government remains optimistic that the upcoming summit will solidify India's position as a prime destination for large-scale AI investment. The country's IT minister has expressed hopes that the event could attract investments totaling as much as $100 billion. Concurrently, the federal government is encouraging domestic startups to develop smaller AI models tailored for local use cases, aiming to reduce reliance on U.S.-based systems.