OpenAI appoints Sanjay Deshmukh first VP of APAC region

OpenAI is putting more weight behind its enterprise ambitions in Asia Pacific with the appointment of Sanjay Deshmukh as its first Vice President of Asia Pacific Sales. Based in Singapore, Deshmukh will lead commercial operations across the region and report to Chief Revenue Officer Dali Rajic.

The OpenAI APAC sales VP appointment comes as the company increases its investments in Singapore and looks to turn growing enterprise interest in AI into deeper customer and partner relationships.

APAC Sales Gets a Dedicated Focus

Deshmukh will work with OpenAI’s regional leadership and teams to expand AI adoption among enterprises. His role covers a region with different regulatory environments, languages, procurement models and levels of digital maturity.

That makes regional commercial execution an important part of OpenAI’s enterprise AI expansion. Businesses are increasingly exploring AI for productivity, automation, analytics, software development and wider business operations, according to the supplied announcement.

Deshmukh brings more than 20 years of enterprise technology experience. Before OpenAI, he was Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan at Elastic. He previously held a senior regional role at Snowflake and leadership positions at VMware, along with earlier roles at Citrix and SAP in India.

Singapore Takes a Bigger Role

The appointment also comes alongside deeper investment in Singapore. OpenAI established its Singapore presence in 2024 and, in May 2026, signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information.

The agreement involves more than SGD300 million for OpenAI’s first Applied AI Lab outside the United States. The OpenAI for Singapore initiative focuses on enterprise AI deployment, talent development and broader access to AI technologies, with the company expecting its Singapore technical team to grow beyond 200 roles over the coming years.

Enterprise AI Competition Is Building

OpenAI is expanding as competition across APAC becomes more intense. Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and Nvidia are also strengthening their presence in major regional markets.

For enterprise customers, this creates a market where AI models, platforms and services are increasingly being evaluated alongside their ability to support business needs at scale.

Deshmukh’s experience across Southeast Asia, India, cloud, data platforms and enterprise software gives OpenAI a leadership profile aligned with that market. The OpenAI APAC sales VP appointment ultimately marks a shift toward a more dedicated regional enterprise sales structure, complementing the company’s investments in infrastructure, talent and AI development.

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