AI adoption is on the rise in Singapore, with 52% of workers in the country using AI in their work, according to Slack’s new Workforce Index.
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Singapore has a separate agreement google OpenAI strengthens its position as a global artificial intelligence hub, accelerating the adoption of AI across public services, healthcare, education, and the enterprise.
The agreement announced on Wednesday includes a new national AI partnership with Google and the first memorandum of understanding between Singapore and OpenAI to establish an AI lab in Singapore.
Under the partnership, OpenAI will invest more than S$300 million ($234 million) to strengthen Singapore’s AI ecosystem, according to a joint statement released by the ChatGPT maker and the Ministry of Digital Development and Information.
Google’s announcement did not include any investment commitments, but the company said it will primarily focus on solving societal challenges, building an AI-enabled workforce, driving enterprise innovation, and building a secure AI ecosystem.
The companies announced this news at the same time as ATxSummit, Singapore’s flagship technology conference that focuses on AI adoption this year.
The city-state is positioning itself as a neutral, talent-rich platform for developing, testing and deploying AI solutions, and is seeking to carve a niche in the global AI race.
The agreement between Google and OpenAI also builds on Singapore’s broader national AI strategy, which includes an investment commitment of more than S$1 billion to strengthen public AI research capacity over five years from 2025 to 2030.
Singapore has attracted significant commitments from global AI players including: Amazonwith AWS microsoftin addition to leading model developers such as Google DeepMind and OpenAI.
Developments on the front lines
The establishment of the ‘OpenAI Singapore Applied AI Lab’ is the first such lab to be established outside the US, following the opening of the Singapore office in 2024 to support customers and partners in the Asia Pacific region.
The new institute will employ more than 200 people over the next few years and aims to help local partners leverage frontier AI to enhance their everyday economic capabilities.
Its efforts include national priorities such as education, public services, finance, healthcare, digital infrastructure, and training programs for mid-career engineers. In its broader “AI for All” efforts, the company plans to co-develop citizen-centric applications with an AI startup accelerator.
Meanwhile, Google’s deal will largely include training government researchers to use agent AI tools in science, and a separate collaboration with the Department of Education to train educators.
Google will also explore collaborations in areas such as healthcare and life sciences under the Global AI Collaborative Clinical Research Initiative. This includes considering how AI can enhance physician expertise and how AI agents can help support patients.
Google also announced a joint whitepaper with the Singapore government addressing the safe deployment of AI agents following the launch of the AI Agent Sandbox in August 2025.
The agreement builds on the long-standing AI cooperation between Singapore and Google, signed in 2022 to strengthen AI cooperation. The tech giant opened an AI research lab called Google DeepMind in Singapore in November last year.
