India is on course to becoming Uber’s largest market in the next 10 years in number of trips, up from third now, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told ET in Mumbai during his five-day India visit last week. Khosrowshahi, who took over in 2017 amid the chaos that followed the ouster of founder Travis Kalanick, has transformed Uber into one of the most profitable ride-hailing platforms in the world. He spoke about Uber’s big India bets, its new data centre partnership, a possible return to food delivery, the threat of AI and autonomous vehicles and a potential partnership with Kalanick. Edited excerpts:
You’ve had a packed trip, announcing your data centre partnership with the Adani Group and two new tech centres. How has the past week been?
It’s been terrific. If there’s one word I’d use to describe the Indian market, it’s dynamic. Things are changing fast. There’s been a huge amount of growth for us here as a business, and I came to better understand both the opportunities and the challenges in India generally. But this remains an incredibly important market for us, both in terms of talent and growth. India is our largest talent base outside of the US, hence the investments in technology centres. It continues to be one of our most exciting growth markets as well, and I’ve met a lot of our partners, the finance minister… it’s been quite rewarding and I’m going to fly back with my brain buzzing about everything that’s going on in India.
The government has introduced labour sector reforms and a new gig worker policy. Have there been any deliberations on this during your meetings?
There’s been discussion around social security benefits and the new policy framework being considered here, which we’re quite supportive of. Historically, in many countries, people thought of full-time work as coming with benefits, while part-time or flexible work came without. We think the solution we’re talking about — part-time flexible work with benefits, including social security — is quite constructive, and we’re having a dialogue there.
Also Read: Uber still ahead despite stiffening competition, playing to win: CEO Dara Khosrowshahi
There’s been pushback from state governments, including threats of criminal action against bike taxi operators..how are you seeing that?
I think what we want is dialogue with the local authorities. There’s no question that bike taxis are making transportation more affordable for a greater percentage of the population and actually complement mass transit. A quarter of our bike taxi trips either start or end at mass transit points.
We’re investing now in beyond just being a car-hailing service. We think that bike taxis should be a part of the entire transit ecosystem and are a much more affordable way for earners to come to the platform and start earning. We’re hoping that we can find a win-win solution, where policymakers make sure they get what they need in terms of rules and regulations being followed. We hope we can continue expanding affordable mobility while also improving economic opportunity for a broader segment of the population.
Tune in| Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi on AI, EVs & why India could become Uber’s biggest market
There’s an energy crisis and fuel prices continue to rise. How does that impact Uber, both in India and globally?
It’s still very early here. It’s difficult to predict the impact on the business specifically. Globally, fuel prices have been a headwind, especially more recently as it relates to our earners and the cost of transportation, but they’ve been relatively modest. What we are seeing consistently is that demand for transportation of all types continues at a very robust pace. It is a relatively modest headwind compared to the increase in demand for all things on-demand in the physical world. We think it reinforces the transition to EVs as being healthy for the environment but also healthy in terms of diversification of energy sources for India and many other countries where we operate.
Uber Eats globally contributes significantly to your business, and food and grocery delivery in India has become a massive market. Amazon and Flipkart are now in quick commerce. Would Uber consider re-entering food delivery here?
I constantly ask myself hard strategic questions. At this point, when we look at the ecosystem in India, the mobility ecosystem and the local logistics sector are quite promising and have enormous growth potential. We’re going to keep revisiting it but at this point we don’t see us getting into food delivery. Maybe through some kind of partnership model to bring this ‘everything app’ concept… but not necessarily through ownership.
Is there anything on the anvil?
Stay tuned.
Also Read: Zomato acquires Uber Eats in an all-stock transaction
Rapido has taken 50% of the ride-hailing market after starting as a pureplay bike taxi player. It’s just raised $240 million. Is Uber willing to spend aggressively in India to protect market share?
We are the largest mobility player by gross bookings in India. Of course, competition here will be a fact of life because there is so much potential in this dynamic, growing market, and competitors always push us to be better and think differently. We continue building for the long term, and are playing to win over the next decade, too.
You said earlier that a lot of Uber’s competition in India was coming from young startups like Rapido rather than traditional rivals. Has that continued?
Transportation in India is large and thriving. We see competition from startups, especially in areas like two-wheelers, but competition is everywhere. Ultimately though, our biggest competitor remains the personal car. Every day, we’re competing against the idea that people should own and drive cars themselves. We believe there’s a broader societal interest in getting more people out of personally owned vehicles and into shared mobility, both to reduce congestion and to accelerate the shift toward cleaner transportation.
Uber does seem increasingly focused on partnerships. Tell us about the Adani data centre announcement. Do you think India’s role in AI will primarily be infrastructure-led?
I do think countries like India will play a critical role in building out infrastructure, including data centres, on a local basis. India is obviously essential for us on a global scale, and I can’t think of anyone better to partner with than the Adani Group for some of that infrastructure. Building out a local data centre here to power our business but also the AI innovations that are coming up is something I’m very excited about and I’m thrilled to deal with the Adani Group.
Also Read: Uber to set up first India data centre with Adani Group
What’s the timeline you’re working toward on the data centre partnership?
We’d love for it to happen tomorrow. Realistically, these things take time, so timelines are still being worked through, but the intent is very strong.
You also announced two new tech centres in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. How much of Uber’s engineering and product work already comes out of India, and where does this expansion take you?
India is our second-largest talent hub outside the US. Our approach in India from Day 1 has been different from many companies in that we’re not looking to build a tech centre as a complement to the mainline work being done. There is an entrepreneurial spirit here that we want to plug in to. Our approach in India is to build full-stack engineering teams that are entirely responsible for the products they’re building. They don’t need to constantly check with the US.
Also Read: Uber to add two new tech centres in India: CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at Bengaluru townhall
How much of Uber’s products are shipped out of India?
The product innovations coming out of India are core to Uber globally — whether it’s the rider app, two-wheelers, merchant tools or the core AI stack. When I see the quality of talent and the return on investment here, I want to lean in even more. I wouldn’t be surprised if we add more tech centres over time.
But your CTO recently said that Uber has exhausted its annual AI budget in just four months and nearly 70% of code at Uber is now being assisted by AI. Where do you get the confidence to build these tech centres?
My view is that AI gives engineers superpowers. The business is growing very quickly, especially here in India. Our engineers love building products with local impact, and AI is making them more productive.
Where do you see India in Uber’s global growth story over the next decade?
India is our third-largest market in terms of trips. It keeps climbing our internal leaderboard of countries… and if I look 10 years forward, I think India’s going to be our largest market. If you look at entrepreneurship, the quality of engineers, and the broader policy environment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is putting in place, the potential here is extraordinary. Of course, there are challenges, but I’d be very disappointed if India doesn’t continue climbing the global leaderboard.
Globally, Uber is also pushing into delivery, commerce and the broader ‘everything app’ vision. Do you stay focused purely on mobility in India?
The opportunity for mobility in India is enormous, so we do want to stay focused on the mobility sector. That said, we’re exploring other areas such as logistics. In particular, what we’re interested in is hyperlocal logistics and empowering small businesses to deliver on-demand, just like you’re seeing with quick commerce or what large companies like Flipkart or Amazon are doing. What we don’t want is the local business, grocer or merchant to get lost in this transition to ‘on-demand’ everything. We think that a commerce ecosystem with small businesses is a healthy ecosystem and we’re very early in our investments in commerce, but we think it’s a very interesting area for us to explore.
Uber once had its own autonomous driving ambitions before selling that business. Today, you’re partnering with Waymo and others instead. Do you regret selling ATG?
I believe companies should focus on what they’re truly great at. We’re great at aggregating demand and supply on a global scale. Just like I want every qualified human driver on the platform, I want every autonomous vehicle on the platform to be safe. I don’t think the AI foundation model race will be won by a single company either. OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others are all going to coexist within an open ecosystem. I think the same will be true for autonomous driving. We want all of them on Uber so we can make transportation broadly accessible and affordable to the world’s population.
There have been reports about Uber potentially working more closely with Kalanick. Is anything happening there?
We’re already working with Travis in the restaurant space, and I have enormous respect for him, he’s our founder. If opportunities emerge in other areas like autonomy, we’d certainly look at them seriously because there are very few entrepreneurs I trust as much.
Also Read: Won’t ‘forget nor forgive’ 2017 ouster with Travis Kalanick: former Uber executive Emil Michael
Your strategy today feels very different from Uber’s earlier years under Kalanick — less about moonshots, more about partnerships and disciplined execution. Do you think this playbook works especially well in the AI era?
I don’t have the counterfactuals. All I can do is my best here. Since I joined the company, the business has grown 10 times over. We just had our best year but I expect every year to be our best year. If next year is not our best then I’ve failed. UberEats is 100x what it was when I joined. I get to stand on the shoulders of giants, but the business has grown and I like winning as a team. When you get to celebrate success with a room full of partners and friends, it’s a lot more fun than celebrating success alone.
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal recently talked about the moat for companies like Zomato and Blinkit being rooted in the physical world. His argument was essentially that AI agents may replace platforms. What’s your take?
I’m not looking to establish moats because that would mean I’m playing defence. I like playing offence. For me, the supply that we’re establishing allows us to be a necessary partner for anyone building AI agents. If the best user experience eventually becomes something like, “Get me an Uber to work,” spoken to an AI assistant, then of course we’d prefer that the Uber AI agent fulfils that request directly because we understand transportation deeply. But even if it’s through OpenAI agents, we still want Uber to be a core part of that experience. So I’m not looking at this defensively. As long as we continue building great products and services, we’ll remain relevant in that ecosystem.
