Anthropic Plans To Open India Office, Eyes Tie-up With Billionaire Ambani

Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei is successful India this week, pinch plans to group up an agency successful Bengaluru and research a business pinch Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, TechCrunch has learned. The move signals nan AI startup’s push to deepen its beingness successful its second-largest marketplace aft nan U.S.

Amodei is expected to sojourn Mumbai to meet Ambani and different elder executives astatine Reliance Industries, India’s astir valuable institution and nan genitor of nan nation’s apical telecom operator, Reliance Jio, group acquainted pinch nan matter told TechCrunch. Anthropic has been successful discussions pinch Reliance for immoderate clip complete a imaginable business to grow entree to its Claude AI adjunct successful India, nan group said.

India — nan world’s second-largest online marketplace aft China, pinch more than a cardinal net subscribers — has emerged arsenic an important maturation region for Anthropic. Several Indian AI startups already usage its Claude models successful their products for some home and U.S. clients. India besides accounts for nan second-highest stock of postulation to Claude’s website aft nan U.S., according to integer intelligence patient Similarweb.

Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch

In August, Reliance Industries partnered pinch awesome exertion companies, including its existing investors Google and Meta, to build AI infrastructure and endeavor solutions done its caller unit, Reliance Intelligence. The Mumbai-headquartered conglomerate had besides explored a imaginable collaboration pinch OpenAI, which rolled retired its under-$5 ChatGPT scheme successful India earlier this twelvemonth and announced plans to unfastened an agency successful New Delhi later successful 2025.

That Reliance–OpenAI business was expected to beryllium announced during OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s planned sojourn to India past month, but Altman yet postponed nan trip.

Reliance Industries did not respond to a petition for comment.

Alongside Mumbai, Amodei is visiting New Delhi to meet apical lawmakers and elder national authorities officials, sources said. He is besides expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 2 group acquainted pinch his travel plans told TechCrunch.

Later successful nan week, Amodei will beryllium successful Bengaluru to denote Anthropic’s agency opening connected Thursday, sources told TechCrunch. Anthropic EMEA caput Guillaume Princen and startups main Daniel Delaney are besides accompanying him. Prominent task funds, including Accel and Lightspeed, are besides hosting dedicated sessions pinch Anthropic executives this week to stock insights connected really developers and startups tin leverage Claude for their offerings.

Anthropic’s Claude app, disposable connected iOS and Android, recorded a 48% year-over-year summation successful downloads successful India successful September, reaching astir 767,000 installs this year, according to Appfigures. Consumer spending connected nan app successful India surged 572% year-over-year, generating $195,000 successful September alone, nan information showed.

Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch

The India figures, however, stay humble compared pinch those successful nan United States, wherever downloads roseate 91% year-over-year and user spending jumped 604%. U.S. users spent $2.5 cardinal connected nan Claude app successful September, per Appfigures. Globally, nan app saw 74% maturation successful downloads to 1.01 cardinal and a 546% emergence successful user spending to $5.62 cardinal successful nan aforesaid month.

Unlike OpenAI, which intends to found a income and trading setup while overseeing argumentation updates from New Delhi, Anthropic plans to target developers and startups pinch its agency successful Bengaluru.

Image Credits:Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch

Anthropic is seeing its largest usage coming from India, a laminitis who useful intimately pinch nan AI institution told TechCrunch, requesting anonymity.

Alongside Anthropic and OpenAI, Perplexity is besides looking to pat India’s market. The institution has collaborated pinch Indian telecom usability Bharti Airtel to connection its Perplexity Pro subscription to complete 360 cardinal Airtel customers for 12 months. The AI hunt startup has besides refined its merchandise for section users, including by launching unrecorded net telephone transcripts for Indian stocks to pull much engagement from India.

Anthropic did not respond to a petition for comment.