India emerges as second-biggest market for OpenAI

India has been embracing technological advancement since the globalization and liberalization of the economy in the 1990s, and recently the country has emerged as the second biggest market for open AI. Open AI CEO Sam Altman says “India has tripled it’s user base since last year and has become the second largest market for Open AI in terms of user base”. Open AI CEO Sam Altman recently visited India as a part of his world tour agenda reportedly looking to raise around $40bn to support its AI model development and infrastructure expansion under its Stargate project.The CEO indulged in open discussion with IT Minister Ashwin Vaishnav in respect of the country’s plan to lower the cost of the AI ecosystem and focused on India’s strategy to build an entire AI stack, including GPUs, models, and applications. He also addressed venture capitalists and various startup funds and companies. The AI market was rattled with China’s launch of “Deep seek artificial intelligence tool” which surpassed ChatGPT in popularity on Apple’s App store in the US. The Microsoft backed Open AI launched o3-mini, which “advances the boundaries of what small models can achieve” as well as a ‘Deep Research’ tool with which ChatGPT can now carry out complex and multi-step research by utilizing large amounts of online data. With the two recent launches in the AI market by China and Open AI, a full fledged AI war is raging. The launch of Deep seek which provides it’s V3 and R1 model free of cost to users has increased pressure on Open AI and other western AI companies to lower it’s cost . To level play with Chinese companies and safeguard it’s market share OpenAI needs a solid plan with low cost models. Following the trend and need to up it’s game in the tech market India is lining up to become a big player in the AI market with the launch of India AI Mission which aims at supporting domestic AI development and reducing reliance on expensive foreign hardware including the procurement of high-performance Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). India’s commitment to AI enhancement is evident with the budgetary allocation of RS 551.75cr in the union budget of 2024-25. During the discussion, Vaishnaw emphasised on India’s ability to develop cost-effective AI models, drawing comparisons to the country’s low-cost space missions. “Our country sent a mission to the mood at a fraction of the cost that many other countries do, right? Why can’t we do a model which will be a fraction of the cost, that many other countries do. So yes Innovation will bring that cost down within application in healthcare and education, in agriculture, in weather forecasting, in disaster management.”Sam who praised India for it’s gruesome advancement in AI tech development, had a completely opposite stance. He said “Look, the way this works is we’re going to tell you it’s totally hopeless to compete with us on training foundation models. You shouldn’t try, and it’s your job to try anyway, and I believe both of those things.” He had utterly rejected the idea of India’s foundational models even coming close to Open AI. True to life in a talk with Mr Randhir Kapahi, who works as a ChatGPT and AI tool expert at pink Villa discussed about the changed stance of CEO of Open AI. Randhir said “ India is emerging as a superpower in every field. We are a population full of keen learners and India has learnt and studied AI and now the foundational models that will be developed in India will be no less than a wonder which will bring revolution in the AI market. Sam Altman has seen this potential and hence has changed it’s stance praising India’s zeal and capability”.