Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is banking on India becoming the next AI powerhouse as competition to dominate the artificial intelligence market intensifies globally. Ahead of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, an Indian publication quoted Altman as saying that the country is capable of becoming a “full-stack AI leader,” expressing optimism about its “homegrown tech talent” and a “national strategy” for wide-scale adoption across the country.
Altman further swore his commitment to helping India build advanced AI systems and placed strong trust in the country to help define “AI’s future.” Let’s explore in depth his high hopes for India to become a global leader in the AI race.
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India’s massive user base is a gold mine Sam Altman can’t ignore
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has called India a potential “full-stack AI leader” ahead of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi. He said India has strong tech talent, a clear national strategy, and huge adoption potential.
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One of AI’s most influential voices will be sharing his insights at the Global AI Impact Summit, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from February 16–24, 2026. Ahead of the mega AI event, Altman expressed admiration for India’s large user base in the AI space. He said:
“As of this month, India has 100 million weekly active users, giving it the second-largest user base of any country in the world besides the US. It has the largest number of students on ChatGPT worldwide, a sign of how many young people here are treating AI as a way to learn faster and get ahead. And it ranks fourth globally in the use of Prism, our free new tool for scientific research and collaboration.”
Further highlighting India’s progress in the AI space, Altman hailed the government’s IndiaAI Mission, aimed at “expand[ing] the country’s compute capacity, support[ing] startups, and accelerat[ing] multilingual applications that improve public service delivery, including in healthcare and agriculture.” The tech entrepreneur hopes to bring cutting-edge AI technology to “hundreds of millions of people,” rather than have it confined to a “small slice of early adopters.”
Altman also shared his strategy to make inroads into the Indian market — one that, to be fair, could apply to any region where OpenAI seeks deeper penetration. He stated that access, adoption, and agency are key to unlocking the Indian AI market and bringing the benefits of AI to more people.
“Adoption is putting AI to work in classrooms, workplaces, and public services. Agency is what turns access and adoption into impact by giving people the ability and confidence to use AI to learn faster, build more, and make better decisions,” he added.
With Altman shifting his discourse on India’s AI future, it remains to be seen whether his complimentary remarks — loaded with hope and expectation — will translate into concrete action and fulfil his broader vision.
From “hopeless” to “full-stack AI leader”? What was Sam Altman’s 2023 comment that triggered massive backlash in India?
At an event in Delhi on June 7, Altman was questioned about whether three Indian engineers could create an OpenAI-like system for $10 million. He responded by calling the endeavour “hopeless” for a young Indian startup with limited funding attempting to create a foundational AI model akin to OpenAI.
“The way this works is that we’ll tell you that trying to compete with us on training foundation models is completely pointless and that you shouldn’t even bother. In any case, it is your responsibility to attempt. And I think both of those things are true. It seems very hopeless to me,” Altman remarked.
The comment was later found to have been misconstrued. In a tweet, Altman clarified that he was explicitly responding to the question about spending $10 million to compete with OpenAI — “which I really do think is not going to work,” he stated.
The saga triggered significant pushback from India’s tech industry and also prompted introspection among certain startups. But with India now clearly in Altman’s AI vision — and the Silicon Valley leader expressing renewed faith in the country’s “homegrown talent” — bridges appear to be rebuilding, as both sides look toward a quid-pro-quo relationship.
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