OpenAI chief Sam Altman is likely to visit India on Wednesday, media reports said.

His trip will include meetings with key government figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, reported Firstpost.

Altman's visit to India is coming at a time when his ChatGPT is perhaps facing a challenge from Chinese firm DeepSeek's AI chatbot.

The launch of the affordable Chinese AI chatbot R1 opened the market that was so far dominated by the US companies.

Contrary to the high-cost AI  chatbot models like ChatGPT, DeepSeek is believed to have created its own chatbot for less than $6 million.

According to reports, it requires much less computing power, providing an alternative option to consumers.

Surprising the US tech industry, R1 even overtook ChatGPT to become a top free app on Apple’s App Store.

Following the launch, tech major NVIDIA suffered a staggering $590 billion loss in market value.

OpenAI partners with SoftBank

Ahead of his possible India visit, Sam Altman was in Japan where his OpenAI announced a partnership with SoftBank Group to develop and market Advanced Enterprise AI called “Cristal intelligence.”

Cristal intelligence will securely integrate the systems and data of individual enterprises in a way that is customized specifically for each company.

SoftBank Group Corp. will spend $3 billion US annually to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across its group companies, making it the first company in the world to integrate Cristal intelligence at scale, as well as deploying existing tools like ChatGPT Enterprise to employees across the entire group.

Furthermore, to accelerate the deployment of Cristal intelligence customized for Japan-based companies, OpenAI and the SoftBank Group agreed to establish a joint venture (JV) company called "SB OpenAI Japan."

This JV will market Cristal intelligence exclusively to major companies in Japan.

India's AI vision

Union Minister of Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, last week announced India is set to develop its own foundational AI model in the coming months, underscoring the country's ambitions in the field.

Additionally, he announced the empanelment of 18,693 graphics processing units (GPUs) under a shared computing facility.

Vaishnaw made a series of announcements aimed at positioning India as a key player in the global AI landscape, including plans to establish an AI safety institution.

Vaishnaw stated that the Prime Minister's economic vision focused on making modern technology accessible to everyone.

He also claimed that India currently had the most affordable computing facility.

In March, the government committed over Rs 10,300 crore to the IndiaAI mission, a major investment initiative that includes funding for AI startups and the development of domestic AI infrastructure.