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.

The momentum 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 AI ecosystem and developing local talent. So far, the biggest names to set up bases 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 expanding into Asia through Singapore, which underscores the continued need for on-the-ground operations 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 currently leading the pack with 33 vacancies. The company opened its Singapore office in late 2024 and was in talks to expand it by leasing 100,000 square feet of office space at Shaw Tower on Beach Road, The Business Times reported in August.

The AI giant also recently hired its first VP of Asia Pacific sales, signaling its deeper commitment to pursuing enterprises in the region.

Meanwhile, rival Anthropic has just officially set foot in Singapore, driven by growing enterprise demand, particularly in regulated sectors such as financial services and government.

Leading the operation – which also includes the rest of Southeast Asia – is Dale Finlay, who previously led regional go-to-market strategy at Google Cloud and OpenAI.

Another active recruiter is Plaud, a US-based startup that develops AI note-taking devices and has a reported US$2 billion valuation. It is hiring for 14 positions in Singapore as of mid-September.

The city-state is Plaud’s key R&D hub, founder Nathan Xu told Tech in Asia at the sidelines of the SuperAI conference in June.