OpenAI Hires JioStar CEO Kiran Mani to Lead Asia-Pacific Operations

OpenAI has appointed Kiran Mani, the Chief Executive Officer of Indian streaming platform JioStar, to lead its Asia-Pacific operations, according to a report by Bloomberg. 

Mani will join OpenAI as Managing Director for Asia-Pacific in June and will be based in Singapore, reporting to Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon. 

Mani joins from JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance Industries and Walt Disney, which operates the JioHotstar streaming platform. The service has built a subscriber base of over 300 million by leveraging India’s demand for cricket, entertainment, and digital content.

The newly created role highlights OpenAI’s growing focus on Asia, where large and rapidly digitising populations offer significant user growth potential. Countries such as India, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, are seen as key markets in the company’s global expansion strategy.

The country has emerged as a key growth market, with over 100 million weekly ChatGPT users across students, developers and enterprises. OpenAI already has a presence in New Delhi and plans to open new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru this year.

OpenAI is currently competing with rivals, including Anthropic and Google Gemini, to capture users and scale adoption of its AI products, particularly ChatGPT. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to play a central role in that race.

Mani’s appointment also reflects a broader trend of global AI firms hiring senior executives with deep experience in consumer technology and large-scale digital platforms to drive regional growth. Mani brings over two decades of experience in building and scaling digital ecosystems across mobile, cloud, and media.