Singapore lands OpenAI, Google and Nvidia as it bids to be global AI hub
US giants will develop and deploy tech as part of Singapore’s ambitious national AI strategy
Welcome back to Asia Tech Review, your curated digest to keep up to date with tech news across Asia.
Singapore is making moves to become a global AI deployment hub after the government brokered deals with OpenAI, Google and Nvidia. Meanwhile Nvidia’s biggest rivals look like sovereign AI stacks, which are emerging in China and South Korea.
To keep up with our issues, follow us on LinkedIn or WhatsApp. Please do share Asia Tech Review with people you know who want to get smart about Asia tech.
Singapore bets on being a global AI deployment hub
Singapore is making a big play to be Asia’s AI innovation and deployment lab after it announced partnerships with Google, OpenAI and Nvidia, and programmes to test and deploy robotic technologies.
A range of partnerships were announced on the first day of the ATxSummit, headlined by OpenAI committing $230 million to its ‘OpenAI for Singapore’ initiative. That will include the opening of its first ‘Applied AI Lab’ outside of the US, creating 200 jobs in Singapore. Google opened its DeepMind Lab in Singapore last year, and it will ramp up its activities to work with the government.
Both companies will work with Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) to develop its national AI strategy. These broadly include working with local businesses and educators to raise AI adoption, understanding and available talent.
Google, meanwhile, will work with science-focused agencies—the National Research Foundation (NRF) and Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)— to provide its scientific research and analysis tools. It is also exploring the use of AI for healthcare to support doctors and patients.
Robotics is another major area for Singapore’s AI strategy. Nvidia announced that it will open its first research hub in Singapore, its second in Asia, to develop “embodied AI,’ a term for robotics, drones and other hardware linked to AI systems.
Nvidia will be the first of a number of companies to use Singapore to explore embodied AI. The country is opening a testbed to allow private companies to design, test and deploy robotics technology for their business. There will also be a centre for intelligent robotics to develop solutions for services like delivery, cleaning and other use cases to complement human workers. Grab, DHL and China’s Unitree are among some of the recognisable names signed up for these initiatives.
With a population of just 6 million and less than 800 square kilometres of land, Singapore has a huge disadvantage but having established itself as a global financial hub, AI is a major pillar for its next phase of growth.
“With AI reshaping economies, businesses and the workforce, Singapore’s response has been deliberate: growing new sectors, anchoring global frontier companies here, and equipping our people with the skills to thrive in this new environment,” said Chng Kai Fong, MDDI permanent secretary, in a quote that pretty much encapsulates the goal.
Singapore does not have the scale of China, India or the US, but it is betting that it can be the testbed where AI moves from theory and demonstration to deployment and practice. With the government firmly on board, it’s a compelling proposition.
Rivals turn up heat as Nvidia admits ‘conceding’ Chinese market
Nvidia just had a monster quarter with revenue increasing by 85%, but its situation in China remains unclear and rivals are jumping at the possibility to build strong alternatives to its product. Two emerged yesterday.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said demand for AI chips in China is huge, but he admitted that his company has “largely conceded” the market. Nvidia has continued to exclude China revenue from its financial reports.
Alibaba revealed its newest AI chip, Zhenwu M890, which it claims makes a 3x performance jump compared to its current offering. T-Head, the Alibaba chip unit, hasn’t revealed key performance metrics for the new product yet, and its memory capacity and bandwidth are below Western competitors.
Crucially, though, Nvidia remains kneecapped in China. That gives Alibaba and domestic rivals like Huawei and Cambricon a clear shot at winning market share in a country where technology self-sufficiency is increasingly crucial. T-Head has delivered 560,000 Zhenwu units to more than 400 customers across 20 industries, the company said.
In South Korea, meanwhile, chip startup FuriosaAI is beginning to introduce its new AI data centre chip which it claims can match the performance of Nvidia’s products while costing less to operate. LG and Samsung are among the early customers of this second-generation chip.
The company claims its chips run with strict power efficiency, which allows them to be more cost effective than alternatives. Korea doesn’t have the same self-sufficiency push as China, but FuriosaAI’s new chip is integrating with major local data systems, including the Samsung Cloud Platform. That configuration enables sovereign AI and cloud solutions which is compelling for domestic companies keen to avoid overseas vendors.
Not every country can offer a domestic stack, but where it can there will be more credible challengers for Nvidia.
In other news you won’t want to miss:
Samsung reached a tentative last-minute deal with its labour union to avert a strike that was set to begin today [Reuters]
Peak XV Partners joined a $100 million round for Primer, a London-based payment infrastructure startup, marking another overseas deal for the India-based fund [The Economic Times]
Indonesian investment app Pluang raised $10 million led by Japan’s MUFG [Technode Global]
China is seeking a balance between AI growth and labour stability, as recent court rulings suggest a new focus on protecting employees from AI-driven displacement [The New York Times]