Anthropic, the maker of the popular Claude AI model, is opening an office in Singapore in October, as it seeks to expand its business in Asia-Pacific.
In the region, the AI company currently has offices in Tokyo, Bengaluru, Seoul and Sydney. Its latest expansion in Singapore is driven by “strong enterprise demand for Claude,” it said in an announcement today.
Singapore is second out of 121 countries in the usage of Claue.ai relative to population, according to the company. The city-state uses 5.81 times higher than would be expected based on the size of its population.
In Singapore, Anthropic will work with organisations of various sizes, from startups and digital natives to large enterprises and the public sector. Demand has been especially strong in regulated sectors, such as financial services and government, it said today.
Dale Finlay, a former Google Cloud executive, has joined Anthropic as general manager of Asean. Based in Singapore, he will work with customers and partners across the region.
“From working with customers across Southeast Asia, I’ve seen that ambition isn’t the blocker to AI adoption – trust is,” he said. “Once that trust exists, the real work is embedding AI into how the business actually operates.”
Anthropic has said it will hire for a range of roles in Singapore. Nine openings are currently available, according to its website, with one for applied AI and others in marketing, economic research and sales.
While not involving a big setup for now, Anthropic’s arrival in Singapore will be lauded as another important win for the Republic’s ambitions to be a global AI hub.
Yesterday, Google Cloud opened its Singapore Engineering Center to bring together top engineering talent to help businesses build and scale up AI systems.
The centre, first announced in February this year, places engineering experts in the city-state. It signals Google’s intention to go beyond the administration and sales hubs that many multinationals like to use Singapore as.
Last month, rival OpenAI was also reported to be growing its presence in Singapore. The ChatGPT creator is said to be in talks to lease about 100,000 square feet of office in the new Shaw Tower in Beach Road, The Straits Times reported.
OpenAI is also expected to open its first Applied AI Lab outside the United States in Singapore, hiring more than 200 specialised AI professionals in the next few years as part of a US$300 million investment in the city-state, according to The Business Times.
