Anthropic taps former Microsoft India MD to lead Bengaluru expansion

Summary

Anthropic has appointed Irina Ghose, a former Microsoft India managing director, to lead its India business as the U.S. AI startup prepares to open an office in Bengaluru. The move underscores how India is becoming a key battleground for AI companies looking to expand beyond the U.S. for major growth markets. Ghose brings deep big-tech operating experience to the role. She spent 24 years at Microsoft before stepping down in December 2025. Her appointment gives Anthropic a seasoned executive with local enterprise and government relationships as it gears up to establish an on-the-ground presence in one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets. India has become one of Anthropic’s most strategically important markets, with the country already ranking as the second-largest user base for Claude and usage heavily skewing toward technical and work-related tasks, including software development. Arch-rival OpenAI is also sharpening its focus on the market with plans to open an office in New Delhi — a sign India is fast becoming one of the most contested arenas in the global race to commercialize generative AI. While India offers enormous scale — with more than a billion internet subscribers and over 700 million smartphone users — converting that reach into meaningful revenue has proven difficult, pushing AI companies to experiment with aggressive pricing and promotions. OpenAI last year introduced ChatGPT Go, its under-$5 plan aimed at attracting Indian users, and later made it available free for a year in the country. Similar dynamics are playing out for Anthropic: its Claude app recorded a 48% increase from the previous year in downloads in India in September, reaching about 767,000 installs, while consumer spending surged 572% to $195,000 for the month, per Appfigures — still modest compared with the U.S., where September spending hit $2.5 million. Anthropic has been stepping up its engagement in India at the highest levels. Chief executive Dario Amodei visited in October...