OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman on Thursday highlighted India’s growing role in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem, pointing to its sovereign AI ambitions, rapid adoption and expanding user base as signals of the country’s strategic importance in shaping the technology’s future.
Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Altman described the event as an important platform for international cooperation and said he appreciated India’s progress in deploying AI at scale across sectors and regions.
“It’s really a treat to be here in India… it’s incredible to see the country’s leadership in advanced AI,” Altman said, noting that the pace of technological progress globally has accelerated sharply over the past year. AI systems, he said, have evolved from struggling with high-school level mathematics to producing research-level results and novel theoretical insights.
Altman also underlined India’s growing adoption of OpenAI’s products, saying more than a hundred million users in the country access ChatGPT every week, with students accounting for over a third of that base. He added that India has become the fastest-growing market for Codex, the company’s coding agent designed to help developers build software more efficiently.
Highlighting India’s democratic structure, Altman said the country is well-positioned not only to build AI systems but also to help shape their governance and long-term direction. He cautioned, however, that the pace of development demands urgency.
“On our current trajectory, we believe we may be only a couple of years away from early versions of true superintelligence,” Altman said, adding that by 2028, more of the world’s intellectual capacity could reside inside data centres than outside them.
2028 Shift
Altman emphasised that broad access to AI would be essential for ensuring safe and equitable outcomes. “We believe that democratisation of AI is the only fair and safe path forward,” he said, warning that excessive centralisation of the technology within a single company or country could pose risks. He also pointed to resilience and wider stakeholder participation as key pillars for AI safety and governance.
The OpenAI chief acknowledged that AI’s future impact on geopolitics, warfare and social systems remains uncertain, calling for stronger global coordination and suggesting that the world may eventually need an international oversight body like the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Democratization vs. Centralization
On the economic front, Altman said AI could expand access to healthcare, education, and goods while automating supply chains and reducing production costs. He conceded that job disruption is inevitable as AI systems take over more tasks, but expressed confidence that new roles will emerge over time.
“The specifics of what we do day-to-day will probably look very different,” Altman said, adding that human creativity, usefulness and competition will continue to drive society forward.