Индия: Вдохновляющий потенциал для глобальной AI-революции Translation: India: An Inspiring Potential for the Global AI Revolution

Sam Altman holds a positive outlook regarding India. He asserts that the adoption of AI in the country is «unparalleled globally,» reports The Economist.

India ranks as the second-largest market for OpenAI in terms of user count, and it may soon take the lead. In August, the company launched a local subscription plan priced at just $4.6 per month, significantly cheaper than the $20 rate in the rest of the world.

Later in 2025, OpenAI intends to establish an office in New Delhi, and Altman plans to visit India at the end of September. Reports indicate he will present a proposal for setting up a data center in the country during his visit.

Other tech giants are also eyeing the Indian market:

For Indian users, this «competition» promises access to cutting-edge solutions at a low cost. For AI startups, the advantage lies in the opportunity to reach hundreds of millions of users and capitalize on the vast amounts of data they generate.

The potential is enormous. There are about 900 million internet users in India—only China has more. Unlike China, however, India is receptive to American tech companies.

Google’s Android runs on over 90% of smartphones in the country. Meta’s WhatsApp boasts more than 500 million active users. Indian e-commerce is also dominated by American giants: Amazon and Flipkart (Walmart).

Nevertheless, AI startups may find it challenging to turn a significant profit in this market. Most tech companies offer lower prices domestically. For instance, a Netflix subscription in India is only $1.69 a month compared to $7.99 in the U.S.

While low-cost cloud services do not face critical issues, fulfilling AI requests can be expensive. Processing data for a standard user costs approximately $0.07 per million tokens, and answering a single question can consume hundreds or thousands of tokens. These expenses remain consistent whether in Bangalore or Silicon Valley.

Requests to ChatGPT utilize about ten times more computational power than Google. Generating a single image with AI requires as much electricity as fully charging a smartphone.

In addition to energy, data centers consume significant amounts of water for equipment cooling—500 milliliters are needed for every 5 to 50 queries to ChatGPT.

Dmitry Shevelenko, the commercial director of Perplexity, acknowledged that providing a free service for a year is costly, but the company has time to «establish itself» and convert users into paying customers.

He noted that India exhibits some of the highest engagement levels among countries where Perplexity has conducted tests. Within five years, it is expected to become «an attractive subscription market.»

Subscriptions are not the only incentive. India’s internet user base is vast, diverse, and chaotic, encompassing individuals from numerous linguistic backgrounds, making it an ideal «testing ground» for new products and observing user behavior on a large scale.

Companies are beginning to realize that Indian users prefer interacting with AI models instead of typing queries. This trend may be attributed to the low literacy rates in the population, as many are unable to read or write, according to The Economist.

AI startups have largely exhausted major public datasets available for training and refining their models. Consequently, Indian users have become a valuable new source of information.

The country boasts a solid digital infrastructure known as India Stack, which integrates government services—biometric identification systems and digital payments—thus bringing hundreds of millions of people online. Their queries aid in fine-tuning neural networks.

India’s regulatory environment also facilitates this growth. Conark Bhandari from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace pointed out that existing regulations do not hinder companies from transferring data abroad.

«There is nothing in the legislation that prevents the use of information gathered in India for training models overseas,» he added.

Indian users welcome the arrival of foreign AI companies, although some express concerns about the potential impact on local players and long-term dependence on American platforms.

Worries have intensified following the high tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on goods from India. Venugopal Garre from the research firm Bernstein believes that American companies have substantial resources and infrastructure that could «crush India’s AI prospects,» deterring investment in local startups.

Altman presents a more optimistic perspective. He argues that the country has the potential to become «one of the leaders of the AI revolution.» The only question that remains is what kind of leader India wishes to be: one that dominates due to its vast user base or one that creates its own technologies?

Notably, the India-based startup QpiAI, aimed at leveraging artificial intelligence and quantum computing, secured $32 million in a new Series A funding round, with the Indian government acting as a co-investor.