By Kimberley Kao
OpenAI has tapped the chief executive of India's Jiostar to head up its Asia Pacific operations, the firm's latest move to expand its presence in a fast-growing market.
Kiran Mani will officially take up the newly-created role in June, reporting to OpenAI's chief strategy officer Jason Kwon. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the appointment. Mani will lead the regional strategy and relocate to Singapore for the job.
JioStar is a $8.5 billion joint venture between Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. and Walt Disney Co. that runs one of the biggest streaming platforms in India.
The move comes as the ChatGPT maker seeks to expand business operations in a region where there's been rapid growth and adoption of its tools, including among business users.
It has been increasing investments in India as it seeks to meet the growing demand for its services in OpenAI's second-largest market in terms of weekly users. India has over 100 million weekly ChatGPT users as of February.
Last month, India's Tata Group and OpenAI teamed up to build AI services tailored to specific industries and help businesses integrate the AI startup's platforms worldwide. The firms also plan to develop AI data centers.
OpenAI plans to open new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru later this year, alongside its existing presence in New Delhi.
Before his role as CEO of Jiostar, Mani had various leadership positions in IBM, Microsoft and Google.
News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.
Write to Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 25, 2026 04:08 ET (08:08 GMT)
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