Anthropic on October 8 announced that it is opening its first office in India in the country's tech capital Bengaluru, as the artificial intelligence (AI) research company looks to expand its international footprint amid intensifying competition from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Meta.
Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei is visiting the country this week to share the company’s commitment to developing responsible AI systems that drive social benefit and economic growth, the company said.
Moneycontrol was first to report about Anthropic's plans to open an office in Bengaluru and Amodei's India visit on October 7. Amodei may also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the company's future plans and potential collaborations, sources told Moneycontrol.
This announcement comes on heels of OpenAI announcing plans to open its first India office in New Delhi later this year, underscoring the growing importance of India in the global AI landscape.
What's the plan?
Anthropic said that it will establish a dedicated local presence in the country starting with an office in Bengaluru that will open in early 2026. It plans to hire a local team focused on building AI for unique local uses across the country.
The AI firm also stated that is investing heavily in advancing the Indic language capabilities of its Claude AI assistant. Claude already provides support across major Indic languages, and Anthropic plans to launch enhanced performance in Hindi for consumer interfaces.
Anthropic is also prioritising model training on nearly a dozen Indian languages, including Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Urdu.
These developments come as Anthropic looks to court India's booming AI developer community amid a scramble by tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta, all of whom are aggressively rolling out AI models and tools to tap into one of the world's largest developer bases.
The company expects these moves to accelerate AI adoption in the public sector and education programs, and to enable broader access to AI across India.
It aims to empower India's entrepreneurial ecosystem to develop the next generation of globally competitive companies, deploying AI for social impact in sectors such as education, healthcare and agriculture, and supporting key industries through strategic partnerships with Indian enterprises, nonprofits, and startups.
Why is India important for Anthropic?
Amodei, who also serves as Anthropic CEO, said that India is compelling because of the scale of its technical talent and the "commitment from the Indian government to ensure the benefits of artificial intelligence reach all areas of society, not just concentrated pockets".
“There is deep alignment between the challenges India is tackling and our mission as a company, from deploying AI across diverse languages and contexts, to building frameworks for responsible governance. India's AI ecosystem will play a central role in how AI develops globally and democratically, and we’re looking forward to working with organizations in India to pave a path for how beneficial AI can be scaled in a way that serves everyone," he said.
India is the largest market for Anthropic's Claude AI assistant outside the United States, accounting for 7.2 percent of global usage, thanks in part to its large population. However, per-capita usage remains low, at just 0.27 times relative to the working-age population, as per the company's recent Economic Index report.
A disproportionately high amount of Claude usage in India is for technical tasks and software development, such as mobile UI development and web app debugging, as per the report.
Why Anthropic chose Bengaluru?
Bengaluru is Anthropic’s second office in the Indo-Pacific region, following Japan's Tokyo. The company stated that it chose Bengaluru for the city's strong talent density and proximity to India’s enterprise ecosystem. It plans to further expand in the region in the coming months.
“Our expansion comes at a pivotal moment when Indian enterprises and startups are seeking AI models they can trust,” said Paul Smith, Anthropic’s Chief Commercial Officer.
“They need systems that combine frontier performance with the safety and reliability required to support critical business operations at the massive scale that they operate. We see remarkable promise in India’s innovation ecosystem – the vibrant startup and developer communities alongside Indian enterprises are building solutions that impact millions of lives globally,” he said.
Read: From Bengaluru's PES University to Anthropic: Rahul Patil is the new CTO
Anthropic's ambitious international plans
On September 26, Anthropic announced that it will triple its international workforce and expand its applied artificial intelligence team fivefold this year to meet the growing demand for its Claude AI models outside the United States.
The firm stated that its global customer base has grown from fewer than 1,000 business customers two years ago to over 300,000 today, representing more than 300-fold growth. Anthropic's run-rate revenue has also surged, rising from $87 million at the start of 2024 to around $1 billion at the beginning of 2025, and surpassing $5 billion by August 2025.
Anthropic is said to be currently scouting for country leads in India and other markets such as Australia and New Zealand, Korea, and Singapore.
How can Indian users access Claude AI models?
Users in India can access Anthropic's Claude models through the Anthropic API, as well as via Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud Vertex AI.
Claude Code, Anthropic's agentic command line tool, is also available to Indian developers seeking to accelerate their development workflows through natural language commands in the terminal.
Among its Indian customers is AI coding platform Emergent, which has integrated Claude into its workflows to enable users to create production-ready web and mobile apps through its vibe coding platform.
How Anthropic plans to use AI to drive social impact in India?
Anthropic stated that its beneficial deployments team plans to partner with government organizations and nonprofits to ensure AI "acts as an accelerator for India’s development agenda."
The company plans to leverage Claude's analytical capabilities for locally-led, data-driven public health initiatives and collaborate with education organizations to pilot AI-powered learning tools that could reach millions of students.
The company stated that it will also work with accelerators and social entrepreneurs to integrate AI into locally-relevant solutions, with more details expected in the coming months.
Last month, Anthropic raised $13 billion at a $183 billion post-money valuation, led by investment firm Iconiq.
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