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Dara Khosrowshahi
Dara Khosrowshahi UBER
Chief Executive Officer & Director, Uber Technologies Inc
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Why Uber Is Investing Heavily In India Despite Losses: Dara Khosrowshahi Exclusive Interview

📅 May 18, 2026 Mint 24 MIN 800 VIEWS 34 SEGMENTS · 3 SPEAKERS
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi knows a thing or two about turnarounds. After scaling Expedia Group, he took over from Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick in 2017, led the company through its IPO, and transformed it from an $8.5 billion loss-maker in 2019 to a business that netted $10 billion in profits in 2025. However, the battle-hardened executive now faces intensifying competition, rapid technological change, and regulatory hurdles worldwide. Mint caught up with him on his latest trip to India - watch what he had to say. #uber #ceo #business Mint is an Indian financial daily newspaper published...

What Dara Khosrowshahi said

Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.

Dara Khosrowshahi discussed Uber's strategy in India, emphasizing that the company deliberately invests profits from the US and Europe into high-potential markets like India, even at the cost of local profitability. He highlighted India as Uber's third-largest market by trips, with strong growth in the two-wheeler segment and a subscription model that drivers prefer. He addressed competition from Rapido and Ola, arguing Uber innovates faster and benefits from fair competition. On EVs, he noted the fleet is the largest on-demand EV globally and will grow faster than the overall business, though full EV transition is uncertain. He said robotaxis are currently more expensive than human drivers, with economics improving only after two generations, and that India's market won't support profitable robotaxis for at least five years. He also discussed partnerships with Adani, over 3,000 engineers in India, a planned data center, and ruled out entering China. He commented on Iran, hoping for change without loss of life.

Key takeaways

  1. India is Uber's third-largest market by trips, and the company will continue investing despite potential local profits.
  2. Uber's two-wheeler segment in India is growing fast but not yet profitable, with a subscription model that drivers prefer.
  3. Robotaxis won't be profitable in India for at least five years due to high vehicle costs.
  4. Uber has over 3,000 engineers in India and plans to establish a data center there.
  5. Uber is not planning to enter China, focusing on its existing 70+ markets.

Numbers and commitments

FigureWhat it refers toTypeAt
20% Year-on-year growth in transactions metric 4:56
21% Year-on-year growth in bookings metric 4:56
40% Increase in global profitability metric 4:56
$10 billion Free cash flow metric 4:56
3,000 Engineers in India metric 18:27
10 million Transit tickets sold in India metric 12:11
over $100,000 Cost of robotaxi vehicles price 16:26
70 Markets Uber operates in globally metric 19:48

Chapters

  1. 0:00Competition and innovation
  2. 0:29Investment strategy in India
  3. 0:52EV growth and transition
  4. 1:10Robotaxi economics
  5. 2:13Geopolitical and economic outlook
  6. 4:15India market performance
  7. 5:32Subscription model and driver feedback
  8. 8:14Government and public-private partnerships
  9. 9:23Bike taxi regulation
  10. 11:22Super app and future plans
Dara Khosrowshahi 0:00 ↗
Waymo has innovated, but I'd argue we've innovated faster and we more than held our own, and it shows in the business. As long as everyone is playing on a level playing field, then we think it's perfectly fair competition. And I think competition in this sector is only natural based on the size and scale of the sector, and it makes us better. It keeps us on our toes.
Highly profitable obviously as a company, and geographically we use the profits that we have in the US and in Europe to invest in our most promising markets. We could turn a profit here in India, but it would be selling our business and the potential of this country short.
The EV part of our business is going to grow at substantially higher rates than our overall business, which was already growing very, very quickly. It'll take a long time for us to make the transition to full EVs, and I don't know whether we will go to full EVs one way or the other.
Today the cost of robotaxis is higher than the cost of humans. Probably two generations of robotaxis, the economics will get to a point where they will be more affordable on a variable basis than humans in certain high-fare markets.
Narrator 1:29 ↗
The CEO of Uber knows a thing or two about turnarounds. After scaling Expedia Group, he took over from Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick in 2017, led the company through its IPO, and then transformed it from an $8.5 billion loss maker in 2019 to a business that netted $10 billion in profits in 2025. But the battle-hardened executive still faces intensifying competition, rapid technological change, and regulatory hurdles worldwide. Mint caught up with him on his latest trip to India. Watch what he had to say.

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Cite this transcript

APA, MLA, BibTeX
APA

Khosrowshahi, D. (2026, May 18). Why Uber Is Investing Heavily In India Despite Losses: Dara Khosrowshahi Exclusive Interview [Interview transcript]. Mint. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917181/

MLA

Dara Khosrowshahi. "Why Uber Is Investing Heavily In India Despite Losses: Dara Khosrowshahi Exclusive Interview." Mint, 18 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917181/.

BibTeX 
@misc{khosrowshahi2026_917181,
  author       = {Dara Khosrowshahi},
  title        = {Why Uber Is Investing Heavily In India Despite Losses: Dara Khosrowshahi Exclusive Interview},
  howpublished = {Interview transcript, Mint. CEOInterviews.AI},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = {may},
  url          = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/917181/},
  note         = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}