Mukesh Ambani and Anthropic in talks to bring Claude AI to Reliance Jio

New Delhi: India’s AI race has a new twist this week. Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei has landed in the country with a packed schedule. The visit comes at a time when India is emerging as one of the most important markets for global artificial intelligence companies, second only to the United States.

According to a report by TechCrunch, Amodei is expected to meet Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai to discuss a potential partnership. Reliance, the parent company of Reliance Jio, is India’s largest telecom operator and has been actively investing in AI through its new unit called Reliance Intelligence.

India now has more than a billion internet subscribers, making it the second-largest online market after China. For Anthropic, the numbers speak loudly. Similarweb data shows India is the second-biggest source of traffic to Claude’s website, just behind the U.S. Several Indian AI startups are also using Claude’s models to build products for local and overseas clients.

Amodei’s India tour includes stops in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru. People familiar with the trip told TechCrunch he may also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior government officials in New Delhi before heading to Bengaluru. Later this week, Anthropic will officially open its new office in the southern city.

The possible partnership between Anthropic and Reliance has been in the works for months. TechCrunch reported that the discussions focus on expanding access to Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant in India. If it goes through, it could give Claude a major push into Reliance Jio’s massive customer base.

Reliance has been busy on the AI front. Back in August, it teamed up with Google and Meta to strengthen AI infrastructure and enterprise solutions. The company had even explored working with OpenAI earlier this year. That partnership was expected to be announced during OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s India visit, but the trip was postponed.

On Thursday, Amodei will be in Bengaluru to cut the ribbon on Anthropic’s first India office. The company’s EMEA head Guillaume Princen and startups chief Daniel Delaney are also part of the visit. Venture capital firms such as Accel and Lightspeed are hosting closed-door sessions with Anthropic executives to discuss how Indian startups can make use of Claude in their products.

This focus on Bengaluru makes sense. The city has long been seen as India’s technology capital. For a company like Anthropic that wants to connect directly with developers and startups, Bengaluru offers the right ecosystem. Unlike OpenAI, which is preparing to build a sales and policy team in New Delhi, Anthropic is positioning itself closer to the developer community.

Anthropic’s app, Claude, has been gaining traction in India. Data from Appfigures shows a 48 percent rise in downloads year-over-year in September, reaching about 767,000 installs. Consumer spending on the app in India surged 572 percent to $195,000 during the same period.

The growth, while notable, is still smaller compared to the U.S. market. American users spent $2.5 million on the Claude app in September, with downloads up 91 percent year-over-year. Globally, Claude recorded a 74 percent increase in downloads to 1.01 million and a 546 percent jump in consumer spending to $5.62 million in September.

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Anthropic is not alone in eyeing India. OpenAI has already announced plans to set up an office in New Delhi later this year. Meanwhile, AI search startup Perplexity has joined hands with telecom operator Bharti Airtel. The partnership gives over 360 million Airtel users access to Perplexity Pro for 12 months.