Rahul Patil, new CTO of Anthropic, brings extensive cloud and infrastructure expertise to lead the AI startup’s next phase (Photo: LinkedIn)
Massive engineering changes in the start-up field of artificial intelligence, Anthropic, appoints Rahul Patil as chief technology officer (CTO). He takes over from co-founder Sam McCandlish whose focus will now shift to chief architect duties. This hiring has particularly excited students from less-known colleges in India as Patil's educational background with the typical trajectory of an IIT alumnus seen in Indian executives reaching top tech positions abroad. Patil spoke with excitement on LinkedIn about the thrilling challenges and responsibilities of advancing AI safely and responsibly.
Rahul Patil is an experienced technology leader based in Seattle with successful professional expertise spanning over 20 years. He began his academic journey in Bengaluru where Patil earned his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from PES Institute of Technology. He acquired a master's degree in computer science from Arizona State University and an MBA from the University of Washington. The solid foundation for his diversified and promising career in leadership roles in technology across the leading global companies is thus set.
ALSO READ: Who is Aravind Srinivas: India’s Youngest Billionaire with Rs. 21,190 Crore Net Worth in 2025
Many of his Indian-origin peers in Silicon Valley who often hail from elite Indian institutes such as IITs, Patil's educational journey began at PES Institute of Technology in Bengaluru. He demonstrated consistent power in growth and improving skills with advanced studies abroad accompanying the bachelor's degree toward making him a more rounded product for the work world with computer science mastery and an MBA, this combination of technical and business education prepares him well to experience technological innovation and organizational leadership in a perfectly different way.
The career of Patil as an employee started in Microsoft where he spent nine years developing his engineering skills while working at this particular company. His move to Amazon Web Services afterwards involved entering a position responsible for large-scale data processing systems which had an important part in the general development of cloud computing. After AWS, Patil took up a number of senior roles at Oracle leading up over cloud infrastructure product development.
ALSO READ: Who Is Pavel Durov? Telegram’s Billionaire Founder | Reveals Surviving a 2018 Poisoning Attempt
As Powell’s deputy CTO and later CTO at Stripe, he had a major hand in scaling its engineering, which includes a remarkable achievement: an astounding $1 trillion in processed payments with almost flawless reliability in systems. His wealth of experience in building scalable, robust infrastructures makes him right for the ambitious goals set by Anthropic.
Patil into Anthropic as the firm sought to strengthen its product and engineering teams, was an important decision for the company. There is notable competition due to outside pressure coming from massive players, OpenAI and even Meta both have invested enormous amounts of cash in infrastructure to keep on top of their leadership position in AI capability. Anthropic also hopes to refine and scale their AI platforms, such as the newly introduced Claude Sonnet 4.5 model with the help of Patil on the cloud's infrastructure and engineering management. This signifies a critical strategic move to iron out the interfaces between product development and infrastructure contingencies positioning Anthropic strongly in the evolving AI landscape.
Rahul Patil's journey is a reflection of the shapes and forms of skill development, hard work, and strategic thinking beyond the normal. Under his leadership, Anthropic will welcome the scrutiny as the AI start-up navigates its next innovation and competition phase.
ALSO READ: Urban Climate Change 2025: How Cities Are Adapting to Extreme Weather| Floods & Droughts
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and reflects the author’s views without endorsement or guarantee of accuracy by Anthropic or Rahul Patil.
