ChatGPT maker OpenAI plans to build a massive new data center in India: Report

ChatGPT maker OpenAI is reportedly planning to establish a massive data center in India as part of its broader effort to expand in one of its fastest-growing markets, Bloomberg reported. 

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The facility, with a proposed capacity of at least 1 gigawatt, would be one of the largest in India, the report said. The location and timeline have yet to be finalised, though co-founder and CEO Sam Altman is expected to outline the initiative during his September visit to India. Altman earlier announced that OpenAI will be opening its first India office later this year. 

we are opening our first office in india later this year! and i'm looking forward to visiting next month.

ai adoption in india has been amazing to watch--chatgpt users grew 4x in the past year--and we are excited to invest much more in india!

— Sam Altman (@sama) August 22, 2025

Such an large-scale data center would help OpenAI offer customised AI chatbots to Indian users and address concerns about data being processed outside the country.

The project would be tied to Stargate, a private-sector AI infrastructure effort supported by SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle, with investment commitments of up to $500 billion. The initiative was first announced in late January by US President Donald Trump as a private-sector initiative, aiming to build large-scale compute facilities for the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI).

The data center would add heft to OpenAI’s footprint in India, where the company has already registered a local entity and is preparing to open its first office in the Delhi NCR later this year. Altman recently described India as OpenAI’s second-largest market after the United States, noting that ChatGPT usage has quadrupled in the country over the past year. He has also suggested India could eventually overtake the US in terms of adoption.

The infrastructure expansion comes alongside a series of India-focused initiatives. Last week, OpenAI announced the Learning Accelerator, a program offering 500,000 free ChatGPT licenses for six months to students and teachers in schools.

The licenses will be distributed in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the All India Council for Technical Education and the Association for Reinventing School Education. 

Notably, OpenAI also rolled out ChatGPT Go, a low-cost subscription plan priced at Rs 399 per month and payable via UPI, as an India-only offering. Its push coincides with a wave of activity by global rivals: Google recently made its Gemini AI Pro model free for students aged over 18 in India, while Perplexity partnered with Airtel to offer premium access to 36 crore customers.