After 4 years with OpenAI, Rajkot boy Shyamal Anadkat to return to India

Rajkot’s Shyamal Anadkat, an AI researcher who worked at OpenAI for nearly four years, has returned to India, describing the current moment as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to build globally significant institutions from the country. 

In a post shared on social media, Anadkat said he moved back to India earlier this year after spending close to four years at OpenAI, where he worked since 2022.

“After close to four years at OpenAI, I moved from the Bay Area to India earlier this year,” Anadkat wrote. “I still believe deeply in ensuring true superintelligence accelerates science and remains accessible and beneficial to all.”

Who is Shyamal Anadkat?

In a profile published by Duke University, Anadkat described growing up in Rajkot, Gujarat, in an entrepreneurship-driven family. He said his fascination with mathematics, physics, magnets and robotics during childhood helped shape his interest in engineering and technology.

Anadkat holds a Master of Engineering degree in Artificial Intelligence from Duke University and has also studied entrepreneurship at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

He additionally completed programmes in Entrepreneurship and Business Analytics through Harvard Business School Online. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Anadkat's professional journey included internships and research projects spanning human-computer interaction, astrobotany and financial technology before entering the AI sector. He previously interned at Grubhub and worked on research projects during his academic years.

Anadkat has also spoken publicly about the influence of his late father on his life and career. In a social media post in 2021, following the death of his father due to Covid-19, he wrote that his father, a longtime Rotarian, had been his role model.

Return to India

Reflecting on his return, Anadkat said conversations with researchers, engineers and thinkers across India and the Asia-Pacific region convinced him that there is growing appetite to build world-class institutions from outside traditional technology centres.

“Over the past several weeks, I've been speaking with researchers, engineers, and thinkers across India and APAC. It's become clear that there are many who want to build the future from here,” he wrote.

Anadkat further argued that what has often been lacking is not talent, but the belief that globally consequential organisations can be built from anywhere.

“What’s been missing is the belief that you can build institutions of global consequence from anywhere. And more importantly, the ambition and the will to pursue ideas that seem impossibly large at first,” he said.

Calling the present moment a “once in a generation opportunity”, Anadkat suggested that India is increasingly positioned to play a larger role in shaping the future of artificial intelligence and advanced technology.