OpenAI Taps Ex-Uber India Chief as First India MD
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- OpenAI appointed former Uber India and South Asia president Prabhjeet Singh as its first managing director for India — a new, standalone country-leadership role for what the company calls its second-largest market after the U.S.
- Singh announced his resignation from Uber on Friday and will join OpenAI in September, reporting to Asia Pacific managing director Kiran Mani and overseeing consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations.
- OpenAI opened its first India office in New Delhi last August and earlier this year announced new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru, with Indian conglomerates Reliance and Tata Group already among its early enterprise partners.
- OpenAI has struck India partnerships spanning higher education, enterprise payments, AI-powered commerce, web streaming, and data center build-outs, and is actively hiring AI deployment engineers, developer experience engineers, a developer marketing lead, a partner director, and solutions engineers in the country.
- OpenAI previously brought on former Truecaller and Meta executive Pragya Misra to lead public policy and partnerships (later expanding her role to head of strategy and global affairs) and ex-Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly as a senior adviser on AI policy — Singh's MD appointment is the senior-most of the three.
- Rival Anthropic opened its Bengaluru office in late 2025 and named former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose as its India head, putting the two leading U.S. AI labs in direct competition for the same enterprise, developer, and government relationships in India.
Why it matters: OpenAI's first-ever country-level MD role in India lifts the market from a regional reporting line to a standalone P&L with its own office footprint and a dedicated hiring pipeline. With Anthropic simultaneously planting a flag in Bengaluru under a former Microsoft India MD, India is now a direct two-horse race between the two leading U.S. AI labs for enterprise deals, developer mindshare, and government relationships.
