Anthropic plans to open India office, eyes tie-up with billionaire Ambani

Dario Amodei, the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, is currently visiting India to establish a new office in Bengaluru and explore a potential collaboration with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries. This strategic move highlights Anthropic's ambition to strengthen its foothold in its second-largest market after the United States. Amodei is expected to meet with Ambani and senior executives from Reliance, which stands as India's most valuable company and parent of the leading telecom operator, Reliance Jio. Sources indicate that discussions between Anthropic and Reliance have been underway for some time, focusing on expanding access to Anthropic's Claude AI assistant in India. With over a billion internet users, India has become an essential growth area for the AI startup. Several Indian AI firms are already integrating Claude's models into their products for both local and U.S. clients. According to Similarweb, India accounts for the second-highest web traffic to Claude’s site, following the U.S. In August, Reliance Industries announced partnerships with major tech companies, including Google and Meta, to develop AI infrastructure through its new unit, Reliance Intelligence. Additionally, Reliance was exploring a collaboration with OpenAI, which aims to launch its services in India soon. Amodei's itinerary also includes meetings with key lawmakers and federal officials in New Delhi, including a planned discussion with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Later this week, he will officially announce the opening of Anthropic's office in Bengaluru, accompanied by Guillaume Princen and Daniel Delaney from the company. Prominent venture capital firms like Accel and Lightspeed are hosting sessions with Anthropic executives to help developers and startups leverage the capabilities of Claude. The Claude app, available on both iOS and Android, has seen significant growth in India, with a 48% increase in downloads year-over-year, reaching approximately 767,000 installs in September. Consumer spending on the app surged by 572%, generating $195,000 in revenue for the month. While these figures show noteworthy growth, they still pale in comparison to the U.S. market, where downloads increased by 91% and consumer spending rose to $2.5 million in September. Overall, the app recorded a global download increase of 74%, reaching 1.01 million, alongside a 546% rise in consumer spending, totaling $5.62 million. In contrast to OpenAI's approach of establishing a marketing and sales presence in India, Anthropic aims to focus directly on developers and startups through its new office in Bengaluru. As interest in AI continues to rise, other companies like Perplexity are also eyeing the Indian market, having partnered with Bharti Airtel to offer their subscription service to over 360 million customers in the region. This highlights the competitive landscape as companies refine their products for local audiences.