Singapore Partners with Anthropic to Expand AI Adoption in the Public Sector

Anthropic has opened a commercial office in Singapore and formalised a partnership with the city-state’s government to support the adoption of artificial intelligence across public services and businesses.

The new office is Anthropic’s fifth location in the Asia-Pacific region, strengthening its presence in one of the world’s most active AI markets. The opening was announced by Dale Finlay, Anthropic’s General Manager of ASEAN, alongside co-founder Ben Mann, Head of APAC Policy Michael Sellitto, and Singapore’s Minister for Digital Development and Information, Josephine Teo.

“We’re committed to Singapore for the long term. Our customers here hold AI to an extremely high standard, especially when it comes to reliability and security,” Finlay said. He added that having a local team would help Anthropic work more closely with organisations using Claude to address complex challenges.

The partnership was formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Permanent Secretary Kai Fong Chng on behalf of Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information, alongside Ben Mann during Singapore International Cyber Week.

Claude AI Adoption Across Singapore’s Public and Private Sectors

Singapore has emerged as a significant market for Anthropic’s AI tools. According to the company, the country ranks second among 121 nations in Claude.ai usage relative to population, with adoption nearly six times higher than demographic projections would suggest.

The technology is being used across government agencies, financial institutions, and major regional businesses. At GovTech Singapore, more than 1,500 technical personnel use Claude Code to modernise internal government systems and accelerate software development.

Private-sector adoption is also growing. Grab, the regional ride-hailing and delivery company, uses BriX, an internal sales assistant powered by Claude. The tool reportedly saves sales representatives approximately 40,000 hours every quarter, demonstrating how AI assistants can reduce repetitive work and improve operational efficiency.

Sea, the parent company of Shopee and Garena, deploys Claude Code across its engineering teams and also provides the tool to its Monee business. Developer platform Supabase uses Claude Code within its core engineering operations.

DBS, one of Southeast Asia’s largest banking groups, has also adopted Claude for business operations. For organisations operating under strict data residency requirements, the technology can support in-region inference through Amazon Bedrock, helping meet the needs of regulated industries.

AI Safety Research and Cybersecurity Collaboration

Anthropic’s relationship with Singapore extends beyond the opening of its commercial office. In 2023, the company participated in Singapore’s Generative AI Evaluation Sandbox, working with the Infocomm Media Development Authority and the AI Verify Foundation to assess the safety and reliability of generative AI systems.

The programme included multilingual red-team evaluations in English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. These assessments helped examine how AI models respond to potentially harmful prompts and misuse attempts across different languages.

The new agreement builds on this work by establishing a framework for continued technical exchanges with Singaporean security organisations, including the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore. The collaboration will also explore how small and medium-sized enterprises can adopt AI tools in practical business settings.

Model evaluation remains an important part of Anthropic’s broader safety efforts. The company provides employee-level access to METR, a nonprofit organisation that evaluates the capabilities and risks of advanced AI models, and maintains ongoing technical discussions with Hugging Face.

These initiatives reflect the growing importance of testing AI systems before and during deployment, particularly when they are used in government services, financial operations, and other environments where reliability and security are essential.

Building Singapore’s AI Developer Community

Alongside its government and enterprise partnerships, Anthropic is investing in Singapore’s developer ecosystem.

The company’s Builder Summit Singapore attracted more than 300 software engineers, while a subsequent community gathering brought together over 700 local builders. These events provide opportunities for developers to explore AI-powered coding tools, exchange practical knowledge, and discuss how AI can be integrated into software development workflows.

The growing community also gives Anthropic a direct channel for understanding the challenges developers face when putting AI models into production.

What the Anthropic-Singapore Partnership Means for AI Adoption

Anthropic’s expansion in Singapore combines local business support, public-sector collaboration, enterprise deployments, and AI safety research. Its work with GovTech, major regional companies, financial institutions, and cybersecurity organisations illustrates how AI is moving beyond experimentation into everyday operations.

For Singapore, the partnership supports efforts to expand AI adoption while maintaining a focus on security, reliability, and responsible deployment. For Anthropic, the new office provides a stronger regional presence and closer engagement with organisations developing and implementing AI solutions.

As businesses and governments continue to explore AI-powered services, the partnership highlights the importance of combining technical capabilities with practical implementation, local expertise, and ongoing safety evaluation.