Tracking AI hiring in Singapore: OpenAI, Anthropic, and more

Glenn Kaonang contributed to this story.

This article was first published on May 19 and has been updated. Given strong reader interest, we will refresh this tracker weekly to keep job data from global AI firms in Singapore up to date.

There’s been a flurry of announcements from global AI firms expanding their presence in Singapore, reinforcing the city-state’s position as Southeast Asia’s leading AI hub.

This comes as Singapore doubles down on its AI ambitions. It is building a new AI startup cluster modeled after Block71 and committing nearly US$780 million to AI research over the next four years.

Attracting frontier AI labs is widely seen as essential to building a competitive ecosystem and developing local talent. So far, the biggest names to set up base in the city-state include OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs, and most recently, Anthropic.

Hiring “actual humans” has also become an important metric for AI companies venturing  into Asia via Singapore, indicating that on-the-ground operations still matter even in the age of automation.

Among the world’s 250 most valuable AI firms tracked by Tracxn, 30 are actively recruiting in the city-state, based on listings from their official careers pages as of mid-June.

OpenAI is at the forefront with 38 vacancies. The ChatGPT maker opened its Singapore office in late 2024 and announced plans in May to set up an applied AI lab – its first outside the US – in the city-state.  

The company said this lab will hire for over 200 technical roles in Singapore over the next few years. OpenAI also recently appointed its first VP of Asia Pacific sales. 

Meanwhile, rival Anthropic opened its fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore in mid-October and is hiring for 11 roles in the country. 

The company’s ASEAN operations is helmed by Dale Finlay, who previously led regional go-to-market strategy at Google Cloud and OpenAI.

Another active recruiter is Cursor, the AI coding company acquired by Elon Musk’s SpaceX in June at a US$60 billion valuation. It plans to fill more than 200 roles in Asia Pacific after putting Simon Green in charge of its operations in the region from Singapore. Cursor’s website currently lists 14 open positions.