OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Wednesday said India is now OpenAI’s second-largest market by number of users, which have tripled in the past year. Altman met with India's IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and discussed India's plan of creating a low-cost AI ecosystem.

In conversation with union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Altman said that India was “OpenAI’s second largest market globally”—underlining the importance of the market’s size in the company’s data operations.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared India the company’s most critical international market. Altman’s statement came after a year that saw OpenAI’s user base in India triple, marking the end of a multi-day tour of Asia that included stops in Tokyo and Delhi.