OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman on Feb 5 said India is now OpenAI’s second-largest market by number of users, which have tripled in the past year.

In contrast with OpenAI, which follows a closed model, DeepSeek’s AI model discloses its full chain of reasoning in an open source model. Altman called DeepSeek’s R1 model “impressive” during a short thread on X.com early last week.

OpenAI recently held an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, addressing important issues, including its $500 billion bet on Stargate, AGI, cost-effective competition from DeepSeek, and open-source strategy.

DeepSeek’s success has prompted discussions about whether training large language models truly requires billions of dollars in capital and cutting-edge semiconductor technology. Altman himself acknowledged the significance of DeepSeek’s progress, describing its R1 model as “impressive” for the limited funding it reportedly received.