OpenAI, Anthropic & Perplexity Rush Into India: The Next Billion-User AI Frontline
What’s happening?
Three major AI-firms — OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity — are accelerating their expansion into India, seeing the country not just as a large market but as a key growth engine.
Key Moves & Offers
- Anthropic plans to open its first Indian office in Bengaluru by early next year.
- OpenAI is launching an India-specific free plan for ChatGPT to capture user growth.
- Perplexity is partnering with a major telecom provider to offer free AI services to millions of users.
Why India Matters
India has over 900 million internet users, making it a strategic pivot for AI companies aiming for scale. One VC partner noted: “It’s no longer the next billion users — it’s the first billion users market.”
Implications & Challenges
- For Indian developers: Increased access to cutting-edge AI tools and partnerships.
- For local ecosystem: A boost in infrastructure, jobs and investment as global players commit India-specific resources.
- Concerns: Data-sovereignty, job alignment, local value creation vs export of data. Some stakeholders worry about repeating earlier patterns of tech-colonisation.
What to Watch Next
- How these firms localise their models for Indian languages and cultural context.
- How investment in Indian AI infrastructure — compute, data centres, talent — scales up.
- Regulatory moves in India around AI governance, data usage and localisation.
Conclusion
The arrival of major AI-firms in India marks a turning point: from “market” to “hub”. For India’s tech ecosystem, this could mean not just consumption but co-creation of next-gen AI models and infrastructure. For global firms, India is the opportunity to build the foundation for the next wave of AI at scale. The question remains: how inclusive and balanced will that growth be?