OpenAI Appoints Former Uber India Head Prabhjeet Singh to Lead Regional Expansion

A Strategic Leadership Transition for India

OpenAI has appointed Prabhjeet Singh, the former president of Uber India and South Asia, as its inaugural managing director for India, with his tenure set to begin in September 2026. Singh, an alumnus of both IIT Kharagpur and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, originally joined Uber in August 2015 from McKinsey and Company, where he had been an associate partner. He was promoted to lead Uber's regional operations in July 2020, guiding the ride-sharing platform through local expansions and regulatory landscapes. In his new role at OpenAI, Singh will report to Kiran Mani, the managing director for Asia Pacific, and will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, strategic partnerships, regulatory engagement, and regional operations.

Expanding Local Infrastructure and Partnerships

The appointment comes as OpenAI intensifies its physical presence and infrastructure development across India, which the company now designates as its largest market outside the United States. OpenAI opened its first office in New Delhi in August 2025 and has detailed plans to establish additional offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru. To support this growth, the organization is actively recruiting on-the-ground technical talent, including AI deployment engineers, developer experience specialists, and solutions architects. This local team will facilitate direct developer integration and enterprise support, moving away from remote API management. OpenAI has already secured foundational corporate partnerships with major domestic conglomerates, including Reliance and Tata Group, alongside alliances in higher education, enterprise payments, AI-driven commerce, and streaming services. Singh joins a growing regional executive team that already includes Pragya Misra, who directs strategy and global affairs, and Rishi Jaitly, a senior adviser on public policy and government relations.

Navigating a Highly Competitive Regional Landscape

Hiring a leader with deep operational experience in India's price-sensitive market reflects OpenAI's focus on scaling practical product adoption. During his time at Uber, Singh managed a highly complex, real-time marketplace that handles millions of daily trips, establishing localized offerings like Auto and Moto categories. Uber itself is a major enterprise user of OpenAI technology, utilizing its APIs to power voice assistants and multi-agent systems for its driver and rider network. By leveraging Singh's background in logistics, local compliance, and workforce scaling, OpenAI aims to quicken contract cycles and ease integration pipelines for regional clients. This aggressive push matches a broader trend of American artificial intelligence firms establishing local hubs to capture India's massive developer base. Notably, competitor Anthropic set up its own Bengaluru office in late 2025 and hired former Microsoft India managing director Irina Ghose to lead its regional business.

As global AI developers shift from remote API support to aggressive on-the-ground execution, the battle for India's massive developer ecosystem will increasingly hinge on navigating local regulations and securing partnerships with domestic conglomerates.