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Karnataka Opens Talks With Anthropic to Build State AI Ecosystem

The discussions seek to combine strict data residency with industry-backed skilling through a proposed AI University to grow Karnataka’s AI capacity.

Overview

  • Karnataka Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar met a senior Anthropic delegation on Thursday to discuss a long-term partnership to apply AI across governance, higher education, healthcare, research and the state’s startups.
  • No binding deal was signed and officials said talks remain exploratory, but both sides outlined concrete proposals including department-level working groups to identify pilot projects in e‑governance, tax collection and exam security.
  • The state proposed large-scale skilling with industry-backed certification that could train up to 200,000 people, and asked Anthropic to help design curriculum, assessments and subsidised access to its Claude platform for students and researchers.
  • Karnataka stressed a 'Government First' approach that requires sovereign government data to be hosted locally and controlled access to datasets, and it sought commitments on privacy, cybersecurity and responsible-AI safeguards.
  • The government is drafting a bill to create a dedicated AI University that will initially run from an existing facility while a permanent campus is planned, and Anthropic signalled willingness to support research collaboration and engage the state’s deep‑tech startup base.