Anthropic’s next big opportunity: Experts see India as a potential growth market if US shuns the AI firm
Tensions between Anthropic and the US Department of Defense intensified after the Pentagon called the AI initiative a “supply chain risk” and effectively banned the use of its models in defense-related work.
The remarks come after Anthropic refused to back down on security measures that prevent its technology from being used to conduct US domestic surveillance and program autonomous weapons that can hit targets without the need for any human intervention.
The dispute led the Claude maker to sue the US Department of Defense, arguing that the Trump administration’s designation of the company as a US supply chain risk could significantly harm its business.
Anthropic PBC told the judge it could lose billions of dollars in revenue this year because of the appointment, Bloomberg reported.
The dispute has since attracted attention in the tech industry; Many companies and researchers, including Microsoft, expressed their support for the artificial intelligence company.
India could be a ‘major market’ for Antropik
Amid the dispute with the US government, Anthropic may find a significant growth opportunity in India, which experts say offers both a large AI market and a deep talent pool.
Saikat Datta, co-founder and CEO of DeepStrat, told Livemint: “Strategically, India is not only a huge market but also has the largest pool of skilled engineers and mathematicians to work on AI. The Government of India has a great opportunity to make some offers to Anthropic that are hard to ignore and provide them with a conducive environment to transition to India.”
Calling the move a potential “game changer” for both India and Anthropic, Datta outlined several steps the Indian government could take to attract the company if the US refrains from doing so. “Give land, give skilled engineers, provide subsidies or declare tax breaks and subsidize IT. But create only one clause: what you build will be jointly owned,” he said, referring to what India can offer.
Meanwhile, Covenant AI’s main contributor Samuel Dare said: “India is an obvious candidate on paper, as it has the second-largest Claude user base, a government that is actively deploying capital to build AI infrastructure, and the political will to position itself as a serious AI hegemon.”
However, he warned that this should not be seen as a solution. “Anthropic will remain a centralized, privately held American company, subject to US export controls, dependent on the same hyperscaler infrastructure, and vulnerable to the same kind of governance pressure that created this crisis. India will gain hosting capacity without gaining sovereignty.”
Will a deal with India offset the impact of the US government’s blacklist?
India ranks second globally after the US in Claude AI consumer usage, Anthropic said in its Economic Index Report published in October. The artificial intelligence startup opened its first office in Bengaluru this year.
But the question remains whether such a move would help Anthropic offset the impact of a potential blacklist from the US government.
“This will not immediately offset the loss of canceled Pentagon contracts. But Pentagon contracts may also diminish the confidence of other governments concerned about sovereignty and security. Anthropic can position itself to build a much larger market by using current geo-politics to its advantage,” Datta said.
Will US-Anthropic tensions affect individual users?
The dispute between the US Pentagon and Anthropic is unlikely to affect corporate customers or individual users of AI chatbot Claude.
According to SFLC.IN Founder and CEO Mishi Choudhary, the impact is expected to be limited to companies that provide technology or services to the US federal government and are bound by such contracts.
“We will have to watch the outcome of the legal battle here to understand the full impact. In the meantime, this has created a tremendous marketing benefit for Anthropic and strengthened its image as a company that stands for ideals,” Choudhary said.
