Despite recent tariff tensions between the U.S. and India, OpenAI, the American artificial intelligence giant, is accelerating its push into the 1.45-billion-population market. According to the latest reports on Monday afternoon (Beijing time), OpenAI is planning to build a super-large data center in India under its “Stargate” project.
Sources said the company is seeking local partners, with planned capacity of at least 1 gigawatt, potentially making it one of the largest data centers in India.
India has become a new battleground for global tech giants this year. Microsoft announced a USD 3 billion expansion of its Indian data centers to boost AI and cloud capabilities; in July, reports indicated Alphabet (Google’s parent) would invest USD 6 billion in a 1-gigawatt data center in Andhra Pradesh, with USD 2 billion earmarked for renewable energy; meanwhile, Reliance, led by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, is building a 3-gigawatt mega data center.
Industry insiders revealed that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, may formally announce the plan during his visit to India in September. At the end of August, Altman confirmed the company will open its first India office, highlighting that India is now OpenAI’s second-largest user market after the U.S., and could soon become No. 1. To capture the market, OpenAI launched a local ChatGPT Go subscription in mid-August priced at 399 rupees (about CNY 32) per month, far lower than ChatGPT Plus (1,999 rupees) and Pro (19,900 rupees).
The pricing move comes amid rising competition from Indian AI startups. In Q2 2025, Perplexity AI, founded by Indian entrepreneur Aravind Srinivas, saw its monthly active users in India surge 640% year-on-year, significantly outpacing OpenAI.
The Stargate project, originally launched by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and UAE’s MGX, aims to invest USD 100 billion (with potential expansion to USD 500 billion) in building the world’s largest data center cluster in the U.S. Now, OpenAI’s expansion has gone global: it has been confirmed as a core tenant in a Norway data center project and is participating in a 5-gigawatt computing park in Abu Dhabi. The India plan will be a key step in Stargate’s Asian rollout and is expected to ease Indian government concerns over cross-border data transfer regulations.