Over a decade ago, tech giants such as Meta, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft turned towards India to tap into its vast user base and deep engineering talent. Now, AI giants are following the same playbook.

Last year, Bengaluru hosted Anthropic’s first developer event in India, held in partnership with VC firm Accel. The closed-door gathering brought together CTOs, product leaders, and founders to explore Claude Sonnet 4.5, Anthropic’s newly launched model.

Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei visited the country and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and enterprise partners across cities. Obviously, comparisons were drawn to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s India trip in early 2025, during which he met PM Modi and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Anthropic has since made its India ambitions explicit — it plans to open its first India office in Bengaluru and appointed Microsoft India managing director, Irina Ghose, to lead its local operations.

The timing of its India entry is crucial. India now accounts for 7.2% of global Claude usage, making it Anthropic’s second-largest market after the US, which holds a 21.6% share.

For industry watchers, Anthropic’s India focus means a deeper shift in how India’s next phase of AI adoption would unfold. But, more than anything, what makes Anthropic a crucial cog in India’s enterprise AI moment? Let’s find out…

Where Does Anthropic Fit In India?

Over the past two years, Indian enterprises have moved decisively beyond pilots and proof of concepts. Banks, insurers, IT services firms, and large consumer companies are now deploying AI in production, often in customer-facing workflows where latency, accuracy, and compliance are non-negotiable. This transition is right up Anthropic’s alley, which is its enterprise-first positioning.

While OpenAI and Google are best known for consumer-facing tools, Anthropic has increasingly been evaluated inside engineering teams, product organisations, and regulated enterprises that care less about flashiness and more about........

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