OpenAI's $4B FDE bet puts Indian IT's delivery model to the test

OpenAI's Deployment Company launched with over $4 billion from 19 investors and acquired consultancy Tomoro, adding about 150 forward deployed engineers. Indian IT majors responded with plans for thousands of FDEs: 35% of their engineers already do FDE-like work, but only 5% of firms have dedicated FDE roles.

• OpenAI raised over $4 billion from 19 investors for its Deployment Company
• TCS could move 1–1.5% of staff, up to 8,900 people, into FDE roles
• Infosys plans 6,000 FDEs over the next few years
• 35% of Indian IT services engineers already do FDE-like work