Anthropic, a prominent U.S. AI startup, is strategically expanding its global footprint by establishing an office in Bengaluru, India. This move is spearheaded by the appointment of Irina Ghose, former managing director of Microsoft India, to lead Anthropic's India business. Ghose brings over two decades of extensive big-tech operating experience, having spent 24 years at Microsoft before her departure in December 2025. Her leadership is crucial for Anthropic as it seeks to leverage her deep local enterprise and government relationships to establish a robust on-the-ground presence in one of the world's fastest-growing AI markets.

India has emerged as one of Anthropic's most strategically vital markets, already holding the position as the second-largest user base for its Claude AI. Usage in India heavily skews toward technical and work-related tasks, including software development. This competitive landscape is also attracting arch-rival OpenAI, which plans to open an office in New Delhi, signaling India's rapid transformation into a highly contested arena in the global race to commercialize generative AI.

Despite India offering immense scale with over a billion internet subscribers and more than 700 million smartphone users, converting this vast reach into substantial revenue has proven challenging for AI companies. This dynamic has led to aggressive pricing strategies and promotions, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT Go, an under-$5 plan initially aimed at Indian users and later made free for a year. Anthropic has also witnessed significant growth, with its Claude app recording a 48% increase in downloads in India in September, reaching approximately 767,000 installs, and consumer spending surging 572% to $195,000 for the month, as reported by Appfigures. While notable, these figures remain modest compared to the U.S., where September spending hit $2.5 million.

Anthropic's commitment to India extends to the highest levels, with CEO Dario Amodei visiting in October to meet corporate executives and lawmakers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to discuss the company's expansion and tool adoption. The company also explored a potential partnership with billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries to broaden access to Claude. However, Reliance ultimately partnered with Google to offer its Gemini AI Pro plan free to Jio subscribers. Similarly, rival Bharti Airtel partnered with Perplexity to bundle access to its premium subscription, underscoring the critical role India's telecom giants play as distribution gatekeepers in scaling consumer AI services.

In her announcement, Irina Ghose articulated her focus on engaging with Indian enterprises, developers, and startups adopting Claude for