Prime Highlights:
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei visits India to strengthen the AI startup’s presence, including a potential collaboration with Reliance Industries to expand access to Claude AI.
- India is a key growth market for Anthropic, with strong adoption of its Claude app, showing significant traffic, installs, and consumer spending.
Key Facts:
- Anthropic plans to open an office in Bengaluru, focusing on serving developers and startups, and aims to collaborate with Indian enterprises.
- Claude app saw 767,000 installs in India in September, up 48% year-over-year, with a 572% increase in consumer spending to $195,000.
Background
Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei is visiting India this week to strengthen the AI startup’s presence and explore a partnership with Reliance Industries, TechCrunch has learned. The company plans to open an office in Bengaluru on Thursday, focusing on serving developers and startups in India.
Amodei is also expected to visit Mumbai to meet Mukesh Ambani and senior Reliance executives to discuss collaboration on expanding access to Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant. India is a key growth market for Anthropic, with the country accounting for the second-highest traffic to Claude’s website after the U.S. Several Indian startups already use Claude models in their products for domestic and U.S. clients.
Alongside Mumbai, Amodei will visit New Delhi to meet lawmakers and government officials, including a potential meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources said. Executives Guillaume Princen and Daniel Delaney are accompanying him, while venture funds such as Accel and Lightspeed are hosting sessions with Anthropic to guide startups on leveraging Claude.
Anthropic’s Claude app has seen strong growth in India, with 767,000 installs in September, up 48% year-over-year, and consumer spending rising 572% to $195,000. Globally, downloads increased 74% to 1.01 million, generating $5.62 million in revenue.
In contrast to OpenAI, which is setting up a sales and policy office in India, Anthropic seeks to serve developer and startup ecosystems. Other AI companies such as Perplexity are also focusing on India, with services being provided via telecoms partnership with Bharti Airtel, and products being localized to the locals.
Anthropic’s move into India highlights the fact that India is increasingly becoming a leading market in terms of AI usage and involvement of startups, positioning Bengaluru as a center of Claude-driven technology.