Anthropic taps ex-Microsoft India MD to lead Bengaluru expansion

Anthropic is making a big bet on India. The U.S. AI startup has appointed Irina Ghose, former Microsoft India managing director, to spearhead its operations in Bengaluru as it prepares to open an office in one of the fastest-growing AI markets.

Ghose brings 24 years of big-tech experience, plus deep enterprise and government relationships — exactly the profile Anthropic needs as it moves from a mostly U.S.-focused operation to a strategically crucial international market.

Why India matters
India is already the second-largest user base for Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, with usage concentrated in technical and work-related tasks like software development. Rival OpenAI is also expanding aggressively, opening an office in New Delhi, highlighting that India is quickly becoming a key battleground in the global generative AI race.

Despite its scale — over a billion internet users and 700 million+ smartphones — converting traffic into revenue remains challenging. OpenAI has tested aggressive pricing like its under-$5 ChatGPT Go plan, while Anthropic saw Claude downloads jump 48% in September to 767,000 in India, with consumer spending up 572% month-on-month to $195,000. Still, that’s modest compared to U.S. revenue, which hit $2.5 million in the same period.

Strategic moves
Anthropic isn’t just chasing users — it’s courting enterprises and government adoption. CEO Dario Amodei met with Indian lawmakers and executives, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in October. Ghose’s focus will be on high-trust, enterprise-grade AI, with Claude potentially tailored for local languages in sectors like education and healthcare.

The market is competitive, with telecom giants like Reliance and Bharti Airtel acting as critical distribution partners for AI apps. While Anthropic explored a deal with Reliance, the telco opted for Google Gemini instead, while Airtel partnered with Perplexity to bundle AI access. Ghose’s appointment signals that Anthropic intends to deepen adoption beyond tech-savvy early users into larger institutions and public-sector applications.

The takeaway: Anthropic sees India not just as a growth market, but as a proving ground for enterprise and multilingual AI adoption, and Ghose’s appointment is a clear sign the company is ready to play the long game.