Kiran Mani, the founding chief executive of JioHotstar, has exited JioStar to join OpenAI as managing director for Asia Pacific. This newly created role signals the company’s sharpening focus on the region. Based on industry reports, Mani will relocate from Mumbai to Singapore and assume the position in June, reporting to the tech company’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon.
Mani is expected to remain with JioStar until early June to support the transition. His departure marks a senior leadership shift at a time when both the media and AI sectors are recalibrating around scale, distribution and monetisation.
JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance Industries and The Walt Disney Company, operates the JioHotstar platform, which has built a subscriber base of more than 300 million. The service’s growth has been underpinned by India’s affinity for cricket, entertainment programming and regional content, which are categories that continue to anchor streaming demand in the country.
Mani’s tenure at JioStar was defined by structural consolidation. He architected the merger of Viacom18 with Star India, creating one of the country’s largest media and entertainment platforms. The integration required aligning content libraries, advertising operations and distribution strategies in a fragmented and highly competitive market.
Mani’s hire reflects OpenAI’s increasing reliance on Asia Pacific as a growth engine. India is now its second-largest global market, with more than 100 million weekly ChatGPT users, while Japan has emerged as a leading enterprise adoption hub outside the United States. The company has also expanded its regional footprint through offices, partnerships and government engagement.
Mani brings a cross-functional background that spans technology, media and advertising. He spent more than 13 years at Google, where he led the Android and Google Play business across Asia Pacific and Japan. Prior to that, he oversaw more than $5 billion in advertising revenue as managing director of US retail, while also serving as head of Google’s global retail practice. Earlier roles at Microsoft, IBM and Ogilvy & Mather round out a career that has moved between product ecosystems, enterprise sales and brand strategy.
That mix is likely to be tested in his new role. OpenAI is no longer operating solely as a research-led organisation. It is pushing deeper into enterprise adoption, with a focus on embedding its tools across workflows, industries and geographies. His move to OpenAI places him at the centre of a different consolidation; this time in AI, where platforms are racing to convert user growth into sustainable enterprise revenue. Mani’s
The company is also scaling its operations aggressively. According to a report by the Financial Times, OpenAI plans to nearly double its workforce to 8,000 from 4,500 by the end of 2026, with hiring concentrated across product development, engineering, research and sales. It is also expanding recruitment in “technical ambassadorship” roles to help businesses deploy and optimise its tools.
This expansion comes amid intensifying competition. Rivals such as Anthropic and Google are accelerating their own regional strategies, particularly in markets like India, where digital adoption continues to rise. India is already Claude’s second-largest consumer market globally, and Anthropic has established hubs in Tokyo and Bengaluru, drawing leadership talent from global technology firms.
The broader market dynamics are also shifting. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are operating at a loss, investing heavily in model training and infrastructure while seeking to build revenue streams. The pressure to improve unit economics and demonstrate a path to profitability is increasing, particularly as both companies position themselves for potential public listings.
OpenAI’s latest funding round underscores the scale of that ambition. The company was reportedly valued at $840 billion, with backing from major technology players and investors including Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank. The capital is being deployed to expand capabilities, strengthen infrastructure and accelerate global adoption.
In Asia Pacific, this strategy is taking a more defined shape. OpenAI has partnered with Tata Group to build artificial intelligence and data centre capacity, while also strengthening its government relations efforts in India. The company has consolidated products such as ChatGPT, Codex and Atlas into a unified desktop interface, signalling a push towards integrated enterprise solutions.
Mani’s role will sit at the intersection of these priorities, focusing on growth, localisation and monetisation. His experience in scaling platforms across diverse markets is likely to be central as OpenAI navigates regulatory complexity, enterprise adoption cycles and competitive pressure in the region.
As AI platforms deepen their enterprise offerings, the line between media, commerce and creative production continues to blur. Tools that were once experimental are increasingly becoming embedded within campaign workflows, customer engagement strategies and performance measurement systems.
OpenAI’s expansion into Asia Pacific, backed by leadership hires such as Mani, suggests a shift from access to application, which is less centered about how many users these platforms can attract, and more about how effectively they can convert usage into sustained business outcomes. That transition will define the next phase of competition, not just among AI companies, but across the broader digital economy.
