OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to Visit India on Feb 5

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) ChatGPT creator OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman is likely to visit India on February 5, sources said on Monday, adding that the high-profile founder is expected to meet top government officials and engage in an industry fireside chat during his trip.

Altman's visit, his second one in two years, comes at an interesting juncture when OpenAI's (and indeed the western world's) dominance in artificial intelligence has abruptly been challenged by Chinese upstart Deepseek, which turned heads with its low-cost AI model R1, built at less than USD 6 million and guzzling a fraction of compute power when compared to popular models like ChatGPT.

Deepseek overtook ChatGPT as the top-ranked free app on Apple's Appstore, as the US tech industry -- that has long-justified injecting billions of dollars into AI investments -- watched in sheer disbelief.

AI chipmaker and Wall Street superstar Nvidia shed USD 590 billion in market capitalisation last Monday, suffering the single greatest one-day value wipeout of any firm in history.

Sources said Altman would be present at a fireside chat in New Delhi during his trip and meet top government officials. Sources did not provide other details, or elaborate.

Ahead of Altman's visit, a 2023 video of him -- where he had expressed doubts about powerful AI models emerging outside of United States -- has resurfaced.

Last month, US President Donald Trump announced up to USD 500 billion private sector investment to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure. The new company, Stargate, which is being created in partnership with Oracle, SoftBank and Microsoft-backed Open AI, would add to tech companies' large investments in US data centres, huge buildings full of servers that provide massive computing power.

On Monday, Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group and OpenAI stepped up their AI partnership with a 50:50 held company -- SB OpenAI Japan.

Altman's visit also comes at a time when OpenAI is facing legal hurdles in India, including cases involving claims of copyright breaches. OpenAI has, however, reportedly maintained it only uses publicly available data and has argued that Indian courts have no jurisdiction to hear the matter.

With the global tech landscape becoming increasingly dynamic and complex, India is fortifying its sovereign interests with its own AI model.

Last week, India outlined global AI ambitions with plans to build its own 'foundational model' that could take on the might of ChatGPT, DeepSeek R1, and others, as it lined up "most affordable" common compute facility powered by 18,693 GPUs to be used by startups and researchers, for creating Artificial Intelligence applications, and new algorithms.

IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that India is all set to launch its own safe and secure indigenous AI model at an affordable cost. He said compared to global models costing USD 2.5-3 per hour of usage, India's AI Model will cost less than Rs 100 per hour (USD 1.16 per hour) after 40 per cent government subsidy.

The minister had exuded confidence that India will build a foundational model that is world class, and that it will be able to compete with best models across the globe.