OpenAI Leads AI Hiring in Singapore With 22 Open Positions

Singapore is positioning itself as Asia’s AI hub through a new startup cluster initiative and a commitment of nearly US$780 million in AI research over four years. Attracting frontier AI labs is central to this strategy, and several major companies have already established bases in the city-state, including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs.

As of mid-May, 28 of the world’s 250 most valuable AI firms tracked by Tracxn were actively recruiting in Singapore through their official careers pages. OpenAI leads the pack with 22 open positions. The company opened its Singapore office in late 2024, and COO Brad Lightcap previously stated that the firm planned to grow the team there to around 50 people.

Anthropric and xAI are recruiting for only a handful of roles in Singapore, primarily in sales and support functions. Anthropic, which has existing Asian bases in Japan, India, and Korea, has not announced plans for a Singapore office.

Other active recruiters include US-based autonomous vehicle company Motional, market intelligence platform AlphaSense, UK voice AI firm ElevenLabs, and Mistral, Europe’s most valuable AI model maker.

China-focused AI firms present a contrasting picture. Z.ai, which recently hired former Antler investor Jay Teo as Singapore country head, currently has no open roles in the region. Similarly, prominent Chinese AI companies Moonshot AI and MiniMax show no open positions in Singapore as of mid-May.

Hiring Breakdown by Function

Across the 143 open positions tracked, sales and go-to-market roles dominate with 48 positions. Engineering and infrastructure ranks second with 32 roles, followed by operations, support, admin, and research and AI/ML roles. This distribution reflects Singapore’s role as a regional expansion hub, where AI companies prioritize sales personnel to capture customers across Asia.

Emerging Coding AI Companies Establish Regional Bases

Coding-focused AI startups are also building teams in Singapore. Cursor, recently valued at US$29.3 billion, hired Simon Green in May to lead its Asia-Pacific operations from Singapore. Cognition, maker of the coding tool Devin, named Singapore as its Asia-Pacific headquarters in late April.

Data Limitations

This analysis includes only AI firms headquartered outside Singapore. Valuation data is sourced from Tracxn and excludes acquired companies such as Manus. Job numbers and postings may have changed since mid-May publication.