Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models, has opened an office in Singapore and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information. The company announced both on 14 October 2026.
The Singapore office is Anthropic’s fifth in the Asia-Pacific region. An MOU is a statement of intent to cooperate, not a binding contract.
“We’re committed to Singapore for the long term,” said Dale Finlay, Anthropic’s General Manager for ASEAN.
What the MOU covers
According to Anthropic, the MOU was signed by Kai Fong Chng, Permanent Secretary of the ministry, and Anthropic co-founder Ben Mann on the sidelines of Singapore International Cyber Week. Minister Josephine Teo witnessed the signing.
Anthropic says the MOU covers cooperation on:
- AI safety, security and model evaluation;
- research on AI adoption and its impact; and
- responsible adoption across the public and private sectors.
Anthropic says it plans to hold technical exchanges with Singapore’s AI safety institutions on model evaluation, testing standards and incident response. It also says it will share research and data with the government, including from its Anthropic Economic Index, and offer expertise as Singapore develops its rules for AI.
“Singapore has been a leader in responsible AI, with a long track record of investment in model testing and evaluation,” said Mann.
“Trust is critical for businesses, workers, and the public to use AI with confidence,” Chng said, according to Anthropic. “This partnership with Anthropic reflects the Government’s commitment to scaling up the responsible adoption of AI, deepening capabilities in our companies and government agencies, and delivering impact for Singapore.”
How Anthropic says Singapore uses Claude
The following figures and customer examples come from Anthropic and have not been independently checked:
- Usage: Anthropic says Singapore ranks second of 121 countries in Claude.ai usage relative to its population, at “nearly six times what its size alone would predict”.
- Government: it says more than 1,500 engineers and technical staff at GovTech Singapore have adopted Claude Code.
- Business: it names DBS, the sovereign wealth fund GIC, Grab and Sea as customers. It says Grab’s Claude-powered sales assistant saves its sales teams about 40,000 hours a quarter.
Anthropic says its work with Singapore goes back to 2023, when it joined a generative AI testing sandbox run by the Infocomm Media Development Authority and the AI Verify Foundation.
What this means
- Singapore is a key AI market. Anthropic calls it one of its most active markets anywhere.
- The government gets closer access to a frontier AI lab. The MOU focuses on testing and evaluating AI models.
- The usage claims are the company’s own. No independent figures were published.
Sources
- Anthropic, “Anthropic opens Singapore office”, 14 October 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/singapore-office-opening
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