Anthropic, the AI research company behind the Claude model, has announced plans to open an office in Bengaluru in early 2026 and begin hiring local talent as part of its push to develop responsible AI systems in India.
The US-based startup, valued at around $183 billion and considered the fourth most valuable private company in the world, said India will play a key role in its global expansion and AI safety mission. Anthropic’s jump to a $183 billion valuation earlier in September followed a $13 billion Series F round, making it one of the highest-valued private AI companies in the world.
Anthropic is seen as one of the strongest challengers to OpenAI in the generative AI space.
“India is compelling because of the scale of its technical talent and the government’s commitment to ensuring AI benefits reach all of society,” said Dario Amodei, Co-Founder and CEO of Anthropic, who is visiting India this week.
Amodei said there is strong alignment between India’s AI goals and Anthropic’s mission to deploy AI responsibly and inclusively.
The Bengaluru office will be Anthropic’s first in India and its second in the Indo-Pacific region after Tokyo.
The company said it chose the city for its deep pool of engineering talent and proximity to India’s enterprise and startup ecosystem.
Paul Smith, Anthropic’s Chief Commercial Officer, said Indian enterprises are looking for AI models that combine high performance with safety and reliability at scale.
Anthropic’s Claude models are already available to Indian users through its API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud Vertex AI.
The company is investing in strengthening Claude’s capabilities in Indian languages. Enhanced Hindi support and improvements for Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Malayalam, and Urdu are planned to help expand adoption in education, public sector, and social impact areas.
India is currently the second-largest market for Claude globally after the US, with a disproportionately high share of users engaging in technical and software development tasks.
Anthropic also plans to collaborate with government agencies, nonprofits, and startups to apply AI in education, healthcare, agriculture, and public health. These partnerships aim to use AI for societal benefit while advancing India’s development goals.
(Edited by : Amrita)
First Published: Oct 8, 2025 8:41 AM IST
