To compete for the Indian market, American AI giants are taking turns visiting India and unleashing the "free" strategy

Global AI giants are launching a competition for the Indian market, with tech leaders from Microsoft to OpenAI visiting New Delhi in succession, trying to lock in the world's most populous country with unprecedented free strategies.

This week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is visiting India again and is expected to meet with Indian Prime Minister Modi and business leaders. During his visit to India in January, Satya Nadella promised to invest $3 billion over the next two years.

In the coming months, Jensen Huang of NVIDIA and Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind are also planning to visit India. Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder of the education technology startup UpGrad, stated:

They are here to build a user base to improve products and services, and India is becoming a testing ground for the AI economy.

To compete for the Indian market, tech companies are offering rare free deals:

• Microsoft is offering its AI assistant Copilot for free to students;
• OpenAI is providing a one-year free ChatGPT Go subscription to all Indian users;
• Google is offering the Gemini 2.5 Pro service, valued at nearly $400 for 18 months, to 500 million users through Reliance Jio;
• Perplexity has also embedded its premium services into millions of devices served by Jio's competitor Airtel.

Analysts believe this competition is not only about user data but also involves India's vast AI talent pool and rapidly expanding digital economy. Tech giants have committed to investing billions of dollars in India's AI sector, as the country transforms from a global outsourcing hub to an AI innovation center.

A Large Talent Pool and R&D Transformation

AI companies view India not only as a consumer market but also value the high-quality data generated by users.

Reports indicate that 24-year-old business school student Siddhant Sharma is using OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini to write research papers, simulate mock interviews, and even create influencer videos about MBA life.

In addition to providing training data, India's vast engineering talent pool is changing its position in the global tech supply chain.

Millions of graduates proficient in machine learning and data science enter the labor market each year, enabling companies to build and refine AI applications at competitive costs.

OpenAI and Anthropic are following in the footsteps of Microsoft and Google by opening offices in India and actively recruiting.

Last week, AI data security and management startup Cohesity opened a new R&D center in Bangalore, India's tech hub. The company's Silicon Valley CEO Sanjay Poonen pointed out that India has a large pool of adult talent trained in machine learning and AI from universities Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder of the education technology startup UpGrad, pointed out that India is no longer just the "back office" of the world; the future of AI will be tested, refined, and ultimately unleashed here.

The Rise of Innovation Centers and Employment Prospects

India's massive outsourcing industry is adapting to this boom, undergoing significant structural upgrades.

Once viewed as a cost-arbitrage outpost, the 1,700 Global Capability Centers (GCCs) have now evolved into AI innovation hubs, deeply involved in the development of large language models (LLMs), product engineering, semiconductor design, and generative AI applications.

Recent entrants, including U.S. retailer Costco, investment services giant Vanguard, and chip designer Infineon, have all ventured into India's GCC space.

According to a recent report by global talent solutions provider NLB Services, as the adoption rate of AI across industries increases, recruitment demand is expected to surge significantly. By the end of this decade, India's GCCs are projected to add 1.3 million jobs, bringing the total number of positions to 3.46 million.

This shift in demand has also given rise to new job categories. According to media reports, the emergence of new roles such as AI governance architects and AI risk strategists is expected to drive an 11% increase in job openings next year