TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The artificial intelligence (AI) firm behind Claude, Anthropic, is set to open an office in Singapore this upcoming October, marking its first hub in Southeast Asia.
Anthropic already has offices in Tokyo, Bengaluru, Seoul, and Sydney.
“As we grow across Asia-Pacific, opening an office in Singapore—where Claude usage per capita is among the highest in the world—is a natural next step,” Chris Ciauri, Anthropic’s international managing director, said in a press release on September 16, as quoted from Fortune.
Claude is the company's flagship series of AI assistants and advanced large language models.
Why Singapore
The Straits Times, citing data from Anthropic's latest Economic Index, reported that Singapore ranks second out of 121 countries in Claude usage, just behind Australia. The usage is 5.81 times higher than expected based on the size of the population, the company said.
Anthropic cited the "high concentration of technical talent, global businesses, research institutions and a strong innovation ecosystem" behind why it opted to operate in Singapore.
It also lauded Singapore's plan to use AI to transform industries and strengthen workforce capabilities while pushing for responsible adoption.
"That balance between innovation and safety aligns closely with Anthropic’s approach," the company said, as quoted from CNA.
The Singapore operation will be led by Dale Finlay, the company's general manager of ASEAN. “From working with customers across Southeast Asia, I’ve seen that ambition isn’t the blocker to AI adoption – trust is," said Finlay, who had previous leadership roles at Google Cloud.
"Once that trust exists, the real work is embedding AI into how the business actually operates."
Senior leaders from Anthropic will visit Singapore for the launch and meet customers, partners, and policymakers.
Plans to hire locally
In Singapore, Anthropic is planning to work with a wide range of organizations, from startups and digital natives to corporations and the public sector.
The company noted that Singapore has seen particularly strong AI demand in financial service and government sectors.
“A presence here means we can hire the people who know this market best, and work side by side with local customers and partners building with Claude,” Ciauri said.
Anthropic also said it will be hiring "a range of roles" in Singapore. The company's career page lists nine Singapore-based roles across five teams: applied AI, finance, marketing, sales and economic research
Citing The Straits Times, the jobs listed include
- Applied AI architect
- APAC tax lead
- Head of APAC accounting
- Senior payroll manager, APAC
- Field marketing manager, APAC
- Regional research economist
- Account executive, digital native businesses
- Account executive, public sector (ASEAN)
- Enterprise account executive, ASEAN industries generalists
Regional AI expansion
The Southeast Asian expansion of Anthropic follows an earlier move by rival OpenAI, which opened its Asia headquarters in Singapore in late 2024.
Just last month, the Business Times, as quoted by Fortune, reported that OpenAI was planning to lease 100,000 square feet of new office space in Singapore. The AI giant also hired Sandhya Devanathan, Meta’s head for South Asia, as its new ASEAN and Australia head.
Meanwhile, San Francisco-headquartered AI manufacturer Plaud, inaugurated its regional headquarters in Singapore on September 16, as "base of operations" for its Asia-Pacific markets.
The push for AI expansion, in both Singapore and across the Asia-Pacific region, comes alongside the burgeoning conversations about the dangers of AI. The Straits Times cited the resignation of Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher, who cautioned about AI's threat to humanity.
To address these risks, the world's biggest AI companies—Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google—vowed to draft a standards body as a guardrail for AI adoption.
Read: Anthropic Boss Dario Amodei Calls for AI Slowdown
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