OpenAI Expands in Singapore: Strategic Market Move

Published Date : 12/10/2025 

OpenAI, the renowned AI firm behind ChatGPT, has set up its Asia-Pacific base in Singapore, aiming to strengthen its regional presence and tap into a tech-embracing market. 

SINGAPORE – Artificial intelligence (AI) firm OpenAI, known for its groundbreaking ChatGPT, has marked Singapore as a key pillar in its global strategy to dominate the technology sector. The company has been setting up its Asia-Pacific base in Singapore since November 2024 and plans to ramp up its employee headcount to between 50 and 70 by the end of December.

The team, with a strong sales focus, has been making significant inroads into the local market, adding names such as Singapore Airlines (SIA), Grab, Sea Group, and the Singapore Tourism Board to its list of clients. OpenAI's chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, highlighted several factors that drew the company to Singapore: a welcoming government, tech-embracing companies, and a large ChatGPT user base.

“Asia-Pacific is one of our fastest-growing regions, with growth of about four times year over year,” Kwon said. Singapore is one of OpenAI's top three markets globally for per-capita adoption, with reports indicating that one in four residents here are ChatGPT users. The AI-native company is actively engaging with organizations in the region, competing directly with its partner Microsoft, by offering multi-modal features, customization, access to its latest models, and enterprise software.

Kwon emphasized that OpenAI's strength lies in its ability to build around its models, providing a superior product experience. “It’s not so much about the models as much as the product that we build around it. We think we do a pretty good job of putting it into a product experience that maximizes the capabilities,” he said. The company is research-driven and focuses on AI, rather than pushing ads or legacy products.

OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft, which invested a total of US$13 billion into the company around the time ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, is currently being renegotiated. Philbert Gomez, head of Digital Industry Singapore and executive director at the Economic Development Board, noted the significance of OpenAI's presence in the country. “It’s significant that OpenAI has signalled its intention to meet customers and partners here. The firm’s scale, with its large user base, brings opportunities to benefit Singapore’s ecosystem of workers, start-ups, and tech firms,” Gomez said.

One local company that has embraced OpenAI is Circles, a telco. Gaurav Tandon, vice-president of product and AI innovation at Circles, signed on OpenAI to help build an AI-native platform. Tandon explained that integrating additional software into the existing IT infrastructure would not have resolved disconnected data and silo systems. Instead, he opted to start a joint roadmap from scratch with OpenAI, incorporating its upcoming features and language models.

Circles aims to deliver tailored services to every customer. For instance, subscribers can ask AI agents to analyze their travel behavior and create custom roaming plans, as well as personalized offers for hotel, flight, and activity bookings. “OpenAI has been willing to build with us rather than offer off-the-shelf capabilities, which gives us a lot of confidence in working together,” Tandon added.

In April, SIA became the first carrier customer of OpenAI, announcing plans to integrate the tech firm’s multi-modal prompts in text, audio, diagrams, and videos into its customer service, operations, and office workflows. The airline chose OpenAI to gain early and customized access to cutting-edge AI and is working closely with OpenAI’s research and engineering teams.

OpenAI has been making waves in recent weeks with a string of deals with companies like Oracle, Nvidia, and AMD, as it seeks to build new capabilities in areas ranging from data centers to enterprise software and improve its large language models. These deals, estimated to be worth US$1 trillion in 2025 alone, are based on the company's future growth potential.

Despite operating losses of US$7.8 billion and burning through US$2.5 billion in cash for the first half of 2025, Kwon remains optimistic about OpenAI's prospects. “We are mostly not profitable because we continue to invest our revenue into building more compute, doing more research, and developing products. From a gross margin perspective, we are profitable in most markets,” he said.

In the longer term, OpenAI plans to feature in both consumer and enterprise markets, similar to Microsoft and Google. Over 800 million people use ChatGPT weekly, and more than four million software developers have used OpenAI to build apps. Kwon noted, “You might use particular types of software at home, and they are the same ones you probably want to use at work. This is the way in which software has grown over the last 10, 15 years, so it’s important to have the tools exist in those segments.” 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS): 

Q: Why did OpenAI choose Singapore for its Asia-Pacific base?

A: OpenAI chose Singapore due to a welcoming government, tech-embracing companies, and a large ChatGPT user base. Singapore is one of OpenAI's top three markets globally for per-capita adoption.

Q: What are the key strengths of OpenAI's offerings in Singapore?

A: OpenAI's strengths include multi-modal features, customization, access to its latest models, and enterprise software. The company is research-driven and focuses on building around its models to provide a superior product experience.

Q: Which local companies have partnered with OpenAI in Singapore?

A: Some of the local companies that have partnered with OpenAI include Singapore Airlines (SIA), Grab, Sea Group, and the Singapore Tourism Board.

Q: What is the significance of OpenAI's partnership with Microsoft?

A: Microsoft invested US$13 billion into OpenAI around the time ChatGPT was launched in November 2022. The partnership is currently being renegotiated, and OpenAI competes directly with Microsoft in the market.

Q: What are OpenAI's future plans in the consumer and enterprise markets?

A: OpenAI plans to feature in both consumer and enterprise markets, similar to Microsoft and Google. The company aims to build new capabilities in areas ranging from data centers to enterprise software and improve its large language models. 

More Related Topics :