Despite recent tensions between the United States and India over tariff issues, American tech company OpenAI is still planning a major expansion into this vast market of 1.45 billion people.

OpenAI is planning to build a large-scale data center in India, which will be part of its "Stargate" brand project. Insiders revealed that the company is seeking local partners in India, with an expected construction scale of at least 1 gigawatt.

The facility is also expected to become one of the largest data centers in India.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced an additional investment of $3 billion in India to build data centers and expand computing power for AI and cloud services. At the end of July, reports emerged that Alphabet, Google's parent company, plans to invest $6 billion in a 1-gigawatt data center in Andhra Pradesh, southern India, with $2 billion allocated to renewable energy power generation facilities. At the same time, Reliance Group, owned by Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is also investing in the construction of a massive data center reportedly capable of reaching 3 gigawatts.

Industry insiders said that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman may announce this construction plan during his visit to India this month.

At the end of August, Altman announced on social media that OpenAI plans to open its first office in India later this year, and he also plans to visit India in September.

He also stated earlier in August that India is currently OpenAI's second-largest market by user numbers, after the United States, and could soon become the largest market.

To capitalize on this trend, OpenAI launched a ChatGPT Go subscription plan specifically for the Indian market in mid-August, priced at just 399 Indian rupees per month (approximately RMB 32.22). This plan allows users to send 10 times more messages and generate 10 times more images than the free version, with faster response speeds.

In comparison, the traditional ChatGPT Plus is priced at 1,999 rupees per month (approximately RMB 161.41), while the top-tier ChatGPT Pro is priced at 19,900 rupees.

The backdrop of tech giants proactively lowering prices is intense market competition. After launching ChatGPT Go, Altman stated that user numbers in the Indian market have increased fourfold compared to a year ago, but this figure still falls short of Perplexity AI, founded by Indian entrepreneur Aravind Srinivas. In the second quarter of 2025, the monthly active users of Perplexity AI's search engine in India surged by 640% year-on-year.

The "Stargate" project, launched by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and the UAE's MGX, initially referred to a multinational capital investment of $100 billion (expandable to $500 billion) in building large-scale data centers in the United States.

However, OpenAI's ambitions clearly extend beyond the U.S. The company previously stated that it is seeking to establish the first ten partnerships worldwide and revealed that 30 countries and regions have expressed interest. So far, OpenAI has officially announced its role as a core tenant in a Norwegian project and will also participate in the construction of a 5-gigawatt computing power park in Abu Dhabi, where the company will occupy 1 gigawatt of computing resources.

OpenAI's investment plan in India is also a key part of the "Stargate" project's expansion into Asia. The company plans to expand its team in India, and establishing a large local data center will help alleviate concerns from Indian regulators about cross-border data transmission.