OpenAI names former Uber India president to lead operations in the country

OpenAI named Prabhjeet Singh, former president of Uber India and South Asia, as its first managing director for India, effective September 2026. Singh will report to Kiran Mani, OpenAI’s managing director for Asia Pacific, and oversee the company’s performance across consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement, and operations in the country.

The company described the role as focused on scaling its presence in India, its second-largest market after the U.S. OpenAI highlighted India’s rapidly growing adoption of ChatGPT as a driver of its strategic interest.

The appointment follows OpenAI’s expansion of local offices, including its first office in New Delhi in August 2025 and subsequent plans to open offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru. The company has also formed partnerships in higher education, enterprise payments, AI-powered commerce, and web streaming, and participated in India’s data center build-out.

OpenAI has also hired former Truecaller and Meta executive Pragya Misra to lead public policy and partnerships in 2024, later expanding her role to head of strategy and global affairs. The company previously brought on former Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly as a senior adviser to assist with AI policy engagement with the Indian government.

India has become a key battleground for U.S. AI companies, driven by its large developer base, more than a billion internet users, and rising demand for generative AI. Rival Anthropic opened its India office in Bengaluru in late 2025 and named former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose as its India head earlier this year.