OpenAI poaches Uber India chief to lead its largest non-US market

OpenAI is placing another significant bet on India. It has appointed Prabhjeet Singh, former president of Uber India and South Asia, as its first managing director for the country to expand its presence in what it describes as its second-largest market after the United States.
Singh, who announced his resignation from Uber on Friday, will join OpenAI in September and report to Kiran Mani, the company's managing director for Asia-Pacific, according to a statement from OpenAI to TechCrunch. He will oversee OpenAI's performance in India, including consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations, the company said.
This appointment represents OpenAI's latest investment in India. The company opened its first office in New Delhi in August last year and earlier this year announced plans to open new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru. In 2024, it hired Pragya Misra, a former executive at Truecaller and Meta, to lead public policy and partnerships; her role was later expanded to head of strategy and global affairs last year. OpenAI had previously brought on Rishi Jaitly, former head of Twitter India, as a senior adviser to help build its engagement with the Indian government on AI policy.
Over the past few months, OpenAI has forged partnerships across India covering higher education, enterprise payments, AI-powered commerce, and web streaming, while also participating in the country's expanding data center infrastructure. OpenAI has cited India's rapidly growing adoption of ChatGPT as evidence of the market's significance. Indian conglomerates Reliance and Tata Group are among its early partners in the market.
At the same time, OpenAI has stepped up hiring in India, with open positions for AI deployment engineers, developer experience engineers, a developer marketing lead, a partner director, and solutions engineers.
India has become a key battleground for U.S. AI companies, fueled by its large developer base, over a billion internet users, and soaring demand for generative AI. Rival Anthropic opened its India office in Bengaluru in late 2025 and earlier this year appointed Irina Ghose, former managing director of Microsoft India, as its India head.
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OpenAI is placing another significant bet on India. It has appointed Prabhjeet Singh, former president of Uber India and South Asia, as its first managing director for the country to expand its presence in what it describes as its second-largest market after the United States.
Singh, who announced his resignation from Uber on Friday, will join OpenAI in September and report to Kiran Mani, the company's managing director for Asia-Pacific, according to a statement from OpenAI to TechCrunch. He will oversee OpenAI's performance in India, including consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations, the company said.
This appointment represents OpenAI's latest investment in India. The company opened its first office in New Delhi in August last year and earlier this year announced plans to open new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru. In 2024, it hired Pragya Misra, a former executive at Truecaller and Meta, to lead public policy and partnerships; her role was later expanded to head of strategy and global affairs last year. OpenAI had previously brought on Rishi Jaitly, former head of Twitter India, as a senior adviser to help build its engagement with the Indian government on AI policy.
Over the past few months, OpenAI has forged partnerships across India covering higher education, enterprise payments, AI-powered commerce, and web streaming, while also participating in the country's expanding data center infrastructure. OpenAI has cited India's rapidly growing adoption of ChatGPT as evidence of the market's significance. Indian conglomerates Reliance and Tata Group are among its early partners in the market.
At the same time, OpenAI has stepped up hiring in India, with open positions for AI deployment engineers, developer experience engineers, a developer marketing lead, a partner director, and solutions engineers.
India has become a key battleground for U.S. AI companies, fueled by its large developer base, over a billion internet users, and soaring demand for generative AI. Rival Anthropic opened its India office in Bengaluru in late 2025 and earlier this year appointed Irina Ghose, former managing director of Microsoft India, as its India head.
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