Anthropic just officially entered the Indian ring. As of Friday, January 16, 2026, the AI giant has appointed Irina Ghose—the former Managing Director of Microsoft India—as its new India MD.
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The thing is, this isn’t just another corporate hire. Or nothing. Let’s be real, Anthropic is setting up its first Indian office in Bengaluru next month, and they needed a heavyweight who knows how to move the needle with both big enterprises and the government. Those too. Irina, a 20-year Microsoft veteran and IIT-BHU alum, is exactly that person. It’s an ongoing situation where the “AI wars” in India are shifting from just having a chatbot to actually building local infrastructure.
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The “Anthropic India” Field Notes: Jan 16, 2026
It’s an ongoing situation where India has quietly become Anthropic’s second-largest market for Claude.ai globally.
The “Technical” Hub: According to Anthropic’s new Economic Index (January 2026), nearly 50% of Claude’s usage in India is for heavy-duty technical work—coding, math, and “vibe coding” (using AI to build apps from natural language). The thing is, India is being used as a testbed for their most advanced developer tools.
Bengaluru Launch: CEO Dario Amodei is flying into Bengaluru in February 2026 for the grand opening. And here’s the kicker—he’s also heading to New Delhi for the India AI Impact Summit (Feb 19-20) at Bharat Mandapam.
The “Indic” Push: Anthropic is doubling down on Indic language support. The thing is, they are planning enhanced models for Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, and Telugu to win over the public sector and rural startups.
The Rivalry: While OpenAI is focusing on New Delhi for policy and sales, Anthropic is choosing Bengaluru to be closer to the “engineers.” The thing is, it’s a clear play for the hearts and minds of India’s 5 million+ developers.
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Irina Ghose: The Power Profile
| Parameter | Details |
| Education | IIT (BHU) Varanasi (Electrical Engg) & XLRI Jamshedpur (MBA) |
| Past Stint | 20+ Years at Microsoft (MD India, COO India, Cloud Lead) |
| New Mission | Scale Claude AI for Indian enterprises & deepen public sector ties. |
| Market Stats | India holds a 7.2% share of global Claude usage (2nd after the US). |
And Here’s the Kicker…
Irina isn’t just joining a startup; she’s joining a company valued at over 183 billion (following their Series F in late 2025). The thing is, she’s already hinting at working with Indian startups on “applied AI“—meaning moving past just asking Claude to write emails and actually letting it run business operations.
It’s an ongoing situation where the India AI Mission (the government’s ₹10,000 crore plan) is looking for global partners. The thing is, with a “local veteran” like Irina at the helm, Anthropic might just skip the line ahead of Google and OpenAI for those big government contracts.
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