According to media reports, ChatGPT's parent company, OpenAI will open its first India office in New Delhi later this year, aiming to mark a significant step in its expansion into one of its largest user markets.

OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, has already registered itself as a legal entity in the country and begun hiring for a local team, the company confirmed in a statement shared with Reuters on Friday.

India is currently OpenAI’s second-largest market by user numbers and has the largest population of student users globally. The company, in a media repot, said that weekly active users in India have quadrupled in the past year, underscoring the market’s importance in its growth strategy.

Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI, said in the statement, “Opening our first office and building a local team is an important first step in our commitment to make advanced AI more accessible across the country and to build AI for India, and with India."

But OpenAI is not entering this market unchallenged. It faces stiff competition from Meta AI, Google’s AI offering, Gemini, and a surge in AI adoption driven by a unique partnership, just recently, Bharti Airtel has teamed up with Perplexity to offer a free one-year subscription to its premium Perplexity Pro service worth about INR 17,000, to all of its mobile, broadband, and DTH customers (around 360 million users) via the Airtel Thanks app.