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This new office will serve as a hub for the company to support customers and partners throughout the Asia Pacific region, as part of its expansion plans.
OpenAI will be opening a new office in Singapore as part of its global expansion plans, which includes additional locations in NYC, Seattle, Paris, and Brussel.
As announced on Wednesday (9 October 2024), the new Singapore office will serve as a hub for the company to support customers and partners throughout Asia Pacific region. OpenAI said in a press release: "These plans reflect Singapore’s leadership position in technology and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the growing demand for advanced AI tools across the Asia Pacific region (APAC).
"Singaporeans are some of the highest per capita users of ChatGPT worldwide, with the number of weekly active users in Singapore doubling since the beginning of the year."
In line with that, the company has started building a team in Singapore "to strengthen relationships with local and regional governments, businesses, and institutions across APAC." Having a local presence in the country will allow it to work closer with stakeholders such as the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) to support Singapore's local AI ecosystem, it added. Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI, commented: "We're excited to partner with the government and the country's thriving AI ecosystem as we expand into the APAC region."
Additionally, Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director, EDB noted that as part of Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0, Digital Industry Singapore (comprising EDB, Enterprise Singapore, and Infocomm Media Development Authority) fosters collaboration between AI innovators and Singapore-based enterprises to help harness innovation for productivity and growth.
"We look forward to the multiplier effects of this move, sparking new collaborations and bringing more leading-edge AI companies to our region," she added.
Kickstarting OpenAI's journey in Singapore, the company has announced a partnership with AI Singapore to drive efforts that aim to make advanced AI more widely accessible across Southeast Asia. Through the partnership, OpenAI will provide up to US$1mn to help develop resources, including open datasets, to ensure AI models are better suited to Southeast Asia’s diverse languages and cultures.
Speaking on this, Dr Leslie Teo, Senior Director of AI Products, AI Singapore, welcomed OpenAI's participation in a "shared vision in enhancing Southeast Asian representation in the global landscape of large language models."
"This effort will improve the availability and quality of Southeast Asian data, and encourage further development and adoption of AI models and solutions in our region."
Lead image / OpenAI
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