Anthropic opens Singapore office and signs government AI agreement
The Claude developer is seeking to bring its most advanced models to Singapore, but has not announced a timetable.
Anthropic marked the launch of its Singapore office on October 14 by signing a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Digital Development and Information. The pact addresses AI safety, model assessment, economic-impact research and responsible deployment in businesses and government.
Co-founder Benjamin Mann said efforts were under way to bring the company’s frontier AI models to Singapore, without specifying dates. Anthropic’s Asia-Pacific policy head, Michael Sellitto, said the agreement provides for testing but gives Singapore no preferential access before the models are commercially released.
Singapore is Anthropic’s fifth Asia-Pacific office location, joining Bengaluru, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo. The company is recruiting locally but did not reveal its staffing level or recruitment goal. On October 14, its careers website advertised at least 12 Singapore positions across functions including sales, finance, marketing, recruitment and research.
Dale Finlay, Anthropic’s general manager for Asean, said sales and market-development capabilities were the immediate priority. Chris Ciauri, managing director of international, said a core Singapore research operation was not currently planned, although that could change following an assessment of local talent. He also ruled out immediate plans for comparable offices elsewhere in South-east Asia.
Anthropic’s latest Economic Index ranked Singapore second among 121 countries on population-adjusted Claude usage. The company said Claude Code had been adopted by more than 1,500 engineers and technical employees at GovTech. Its Singapore customers also include DBS, GIC, Grab and Sea Ltd.
