Technology

Anthropic to Launch Singapore Office in October Amid Regional AI Expansion

By Ann Neo

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude series of large language models, will open its fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore this October, joining its existing locations in Tokyo, Bengaluru, Seoul and Sydney. The new office will be located at Raffles Place, the company confirmed to The Straits Times.

In a statement issued on Sept 16, Anthropic said the decision was driven by strong enterprise demand for Claude, its suite of advanced language models and AI assistants. Citing its latest Economic Index, the company noted that Singapore ranks second among 121 countries in Claude.ai usage relative to population size, with usage 5.81 times higher than would be expected given the country's population.

Chris Ciauri, Anthropic's managing director of international operations, described the Singapore office as a natural next step for the company. He said having a local presence would allow Anthropic to hire professionals familiar with the market and collaborate directly with customers and partners using Claude.

Dale Finlay, Anthropic's general manager for ASEAN, will oversee the company's operations in Singapore. Finlay previously held leadership positions at technology firms across the Asia-Pacific region, including Google. He said that in his experience working with businesses across Southeast Asia, trust—not ambition—is often the main barrier to AI adoption, and that once trust is established, companies focus on integrating AI into their operations.

Anthropic said it intends to work with organizations of all sizes in Singapore, including start-ups, large corporations and public sector bodies. The company cited Singapore's concentration of technical talent, global businesses, research institutions and innovation ecosystem as key reasons for the expansion. It also pointed to shared goals with Singapore around strengthening the workforce through AI while prioritizing responsible adoption, saying this balance between innovation and safety aligns with its own approach.

Senior Anthropic leaders are expected to travel to Singapore for the office opening to meet with customers, partners and policymakers. The company is actively recruiting for multiple positions in the country. As of 10:30 a.m. on Sept 16, its careers page listed nine Singapore-based roles spanning applied AI, finance, marketing, sales and economic research, including an applied AI architect, APAC tax lead, head of APAC accounting, senior payroll manager for APAC, field marketing manager for APAC, regional research economist, and several account executive positions covering digital native businesses, the public sector, and enterprise industries across ASEAN.

Anthropic's expansion into Singapore follows similar moves by OpenAI and Google DeepMind, both of which have established local operations to support AI adoption and advance development of frontier AI models. Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, is among Anthropic's major financial backers.

The expansion comes amid heightened global debate over AI safety risks. Concerns were recently amplified after Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher, resigned and warned about the potential threats AI poses to humanity. In response to such concerns, employees and leaders at major AI companies have increasingly called for stronger safety measures. On Sept 15, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google announced they were jointly working to establish a standards body to address these issues.