Bengaluru-born Rahul Patil
Credit: LinkedIn/Rahul Patil
Bengaluru: When Bengaluru-born Rahul Patil was announced as the new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of US-based Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, the alumni group of PESIT suddenly came alive and discussions began about him.
Patil, who worked in fintech firm Stripe as CTO, took the new role in Anthropic, and he will lead engineering, spanning inference, products, infrastructure and security. Anthropic is valued at $183 billion after it raised $13 billion last month.
Patil completed his BE Computer Science from PESIT in 2002 and was one of the top 3 students of his class. Later, he pursued an MS in Computer Science from Arizona State University (2003-04); in 2013, he completed his MBA from the University of Washington.
What makes his rise notable is that unlike other senior executives of top firms, he did not study at an IIT.
"I am excited to join a new mission and calling—Anthropic! AI possibilities seem endless, and it is going to be an extraordinary adventure of discoveries and effort to make these possibilities real. More importantly, it is going to require us to make a conscientious set of decisions every day to safely navigate this massive transformation and ensure that responsible AI wins," Patil posted on LinkedIn.
Responding to a query from DH, Patil said his parents hail from north Karnataka. "Nammuru Bengaluru. My father is from Bagalkot and my mother is from Raichur. I was born and brought up in Bengaluru. I went to Baldwin Boys' High School and St Joseph's pre-university," Patil told DH.
Talking to DH, Suresh Narasimha, a venture capitalist who is two years senior to Patil, said he is proud of him as a fellow PESIT alumnus and as a Bengalurean. "He was one of the top three students," he said.
Congratulating Patil, PES University said in a post on X that it is proud to celebrate the incredible journey of its alumni.
"Rahul’s story is one of vision, perseverance, and excellence," the university said. "From walking the corridors of PES Institute of Technology (1998–2002) as a Computer Science undergraduate, to leading global engineering teams at Stripe, Oracle, Amazon, and Microsoft, his path has been nothing short of inspiring. Now, as CTO of Anthropic, Rahul steps into a pivotal role—guiding the future of AI infrastructure and safety at a time when the world is witnessing rapid transformation in artificial intelligence," the university said.
Mekin Maheshwari, founder and CEO of Udhyam Learning Foundation, who also worked in Flipkart as Chief People Officer, is the batchmate as well as a good friend of Patil. He told DH that Patil is a successful leader. "He was CTO of Stripe. From a technical point of view, the future is AI, and it is good to see him in the top position."
He added that Patil grew up in Vijayanagar in Bengaluru and his top role now shows that potential is not limited to only a few universities.