Anthropic opens SG office, partners govt on AI safety

Anthropic has officially opened its Singapore office at Raffles Place, alongside a new partnership with the Singapore government to advance AI safety, security and responsible adoption.

The AI company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI), setting out areas of cooperation including AI model evaluation, safety research and incident response. The agreement also covers research into AI adoption and its impact, as well as efforts to support responsible AI use across the public and private sectors.

Under the agreement, Anthropic plans to conduct technical exchanges with Singapore's AI safety, security and assurance institutions on model evaluation, testing standards and incident response. The company also intends to share research and data, including insights from its Anthropic Economic Index, and provide technical and policy expertise as Singapore develops its AI rules.

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Other areas of cooperation include strengthening AI skills locally, helping small and medium-sized businesses adopt AI responsibly, and supporting the government's efforts to build AI capabilities among public officers.

“We’re committed to Singapore for the long term,” said Dale Finlay, general manager of ASEAN at Anthropic.

“Our customers here hold AI to an extremely high standard, especially when it comes to reliability and security. Having a team on the ground means we can get even closer to the organizations putting Claude to work on their hardest problems," he added. 

Anthropic's Singapore office is its fifth in Asia Pacific, joining its existing locations in Tokyo, Bengaluru, Seoul and Sydney. The company said Singapore ranks second among 121 countries for Claude.ai usage relative to population, at nearly six times the level expected based on its population size.

The company also highlighted its existing work with Singapore organisations. More than 1,500 engineers and technical staff at GovTech Singapore have adopted Claude Code to modernise government systems and accelerate software delivery, while the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore is exploring how Claude could support cyber defence.

In financial services, DBS uses Claude for software development and day-to-day productivity, while GIC is rolling it out across its investment and corporate services teams.

In addition, Grab uses Claude to power its BriX sales assistant and Sea, the parent company of Shopee, Garena and Monee, also uses Claude to support customer service and software development.

Anthropic's local expansion comes with plans to grow its workforce. Its careers site currently lists 12 Singapore-based openings across finance, marketing and brand, people, public benefit and sales.

The openings include a field marketing manager for APAC, alongside four finance roles, an APAC recruiting coordinator, a regional research economist and five sales-related positions. These include account executive roles covering the public sector in ASEAN and enterprise customers, as well as customer success and revenue strategy and operations.

The hiring drive follows Anthropic's appointment of Finlay as general manager of ASEAN, based in Singapore, which was reported by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE in September.

Finlay previously held go-to-market leadership roles across Asia Pacific, including nearly a decade at Google Cloud, spanning AI, financial services and enterprise.

The Singapore office opening also comes as the government deepens its partnerships with global AI companies to build local capabilities and encourage enterprise adoption.

In May, OpenAI announced an investment of more than SG$300 million in Singapore to establish its first Applied AI Lab outside the US, in partnership with MDDI. The lab is expected to build a team of more than 200 forward-deployed engineers and technical specialists over the next few years to help organisations deploy AI applications across sectors including public services, finance, healthcare and digital infrastructure.

OpenAI also outlined plans for training programmes for mid-career software engineers, AI accelerator programmes for startups, technical support for businesses and AI capability-building initiatives for small businesses and the wider workforce.

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