OpenAI CEO Sam Altman plans to visit India in mid-February, his first visit to the country in nearly a year, TechCrunch has learned. The visit comes as New Delhi hosts a major AI summit expected to attract top executives from Meta, Google and Anthropic.

India is hosting its first major AI event — the India AI Impact Summit 2026 — Between February 16 and 20 in New Delhi, the summit brought together global technology leaders, including important Indian business figures such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodi, as well as Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani. website. Altman is not currently listed as a confirmed participant.

But TechCrunch has learned that OpenAI is separately planning to hold closed-door meetings on the sidelines of the summit in New Delhi, where Altman is expected to attend. The company is also hosting an OpenAI event in New Delhi on February 19, where venture capitalists and industry executives have been invited, a person familiar with the matter said.

Altman’s visit has not been publicly announced and plans are still subject to change, sources said.

Several other US companies are also planning side events around Summit week. Anthropic is hosting a developer day in Bengaluru on February 16, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. Nvidia is also set to hold an evening event in New Delhi during the week of the summit, people familiar with the plans told TechCrunch. (The GPU maker did not respond to a request for comment.) The cluster of events underscores how global AI companies are looking to engage India’s enterprise customers, startup ecosystem and developer community.

The visit will mark Altman’s first visit to India in almost a year Traveled the country In February 2025. Altman previously said that he Plan to return later After the August announcement of OpenAI in 2025 New Delhi OfficeBut that trip didn’t happen.

Altman’s visit also comes as India emerges as a key growth market for American AI companies In recent months, anthropologists Announced an office in Bangalore And Name of former Managing Director of Microsoft India Irina Ghosh as its local head Google And Confusion Reliance Jio and Bharti have partnered with Airtel respectively to bundle premium AI subscriptions for millions of telecom users.

OpenAI has been expanding its presence in India in recent months, recruitment Across legal roles focused on enterprise sales, technology deployment, and AI governance. The company is currently listing openings in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. emerged as India ChatGPT’s largest market by download And Second largest by users. Still, OpenAI faces the challenge of converting that demand into paid subscriptions, Introducing a low cost “ChatGPT Go” plan Last year the price was below $5 and Free offer for one year Uptake runs

Altman is expected to meet with key technology executives, startup founders and government officials during the trip, sources said, as OpenAI seeks to expand enterprise adoption of ChatGPT while still expanding its reach as a mass-market product. The company is involved in multiple sectors in India, including education and media, the people added.

OpenAI is also looking at India as a potential base for infrastructure expansion, sources said. Last year, both Google and Microsoft announced A multi-billion dollar investment in india Expand their AI and cloud footprint. But India’s data-center ambitions Face limitationsFactors that can slow down the deployment of AI infrastructure and increase operating costs for cloud providers — including uneven power availability, high energy costs, and water scarcity in different regions.

Still, the Indian government is hopeful that the upcoming summit will cement India’s status as a destination for large-scale AI investment. The country’s IT minister said in a recent interview that the program could help Attracts as much as $100 billion The federal government is also pushing domestic startups to invest Create small models Local use cases, eventually reducing reliance on US-based systems.

OpenAI, India’s IT ministry and AI Summit organizers did not respond to requests for comment.