Singapore's next frontier : Supercharging AI via the world's most reliable launchpad
MY FIRST Formula One weekend in Singapore was a masterclass in operational precision. When the chequered flag dropped, tens of thousands of people were funnelled on to spotless MRT platforms in minutes – no gridlock, no fuss. That same logistical magic persuaded us to relocate TOKEN2049 from Hong Kong to Singapore in 2022, hosting the event at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and running it back-to-back with the Grand Prix.
The move was quickly vindicated: MBS supplied efficiency, scale and convenience in abundance, while Singapore showed how East-and-West innovation can thrive under one impeccably-run roof. On that foundation we are now taking an even bolder step – bringing an expanded edition of SuperAI, Asia's largest frontier-technology gathering, to MBS next month – on June 18-19.
Triple advantage: Infrastructure, integration, and international trust
Hardware and policy statistics tell part of the story – Singapore ranks second in the world for industrial-robot density and was one of the first nations with a National AI Strategy – but they alone miss the lived reality that convinced us this is the right launchpad for advanced AI.
I've just spent a six-week immersion on the ground in Singapore, meeting founders, officials and investors. Three encounters stand out.
The first was a late-night Google Meet, where Kelvin Wee of KABAM Robotics showed me how Singapore buildings are becoming testbeds for the Robot Middleware Framework – software that lets robots from different manufacturers coordinate elevator access and exchange real-time data with building systems. In other cities middleware is an after-thought; here it is treated like plumbing.
More recently, together with the team at Wavesparks, we seamlessly arranged 100 student passes to SuperAI in partnership with National Youth Council Singapore, so tomorrow's coders can rub shoulders with today's CEOs. No other nation I know integrates teenagers into deep-tech conferences without a second thought.
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And on the finance front, a voice note from Vishal Harnal of 500 Global showed unequivocal interest – 'Send me every startup turning robotics into SaaS; money is waiting,' was his message. The queue, it seems, now forms in Singapore.
Those conversations crystallised three enduring advantages that numbers alone can't capture. First, certainty in an uncertain world. Pandemic travel lanes, haze-proof cargo corridors and the city's legendary F1 crowd flow prove that Singapore designs for reliability long before the fireworks start. Second, a whole-of-nation R&D funnel. A*STAR prototypes the science; the National Robotics Programme turns it into pilots; Jurong Innovation District offers a full-scale factory floor. Time from lab to loading dock is measured in months, not years. Third, neutral ground between East and West. DeepSeek's bilingual models emerge in Shenzhen while GenAI copilots flourish in Silicon Valley, but both need a trusted midpoint. OpenAI's decision to open its first Asia-Pacific hub here is only the latest signal.
Where else can you watch autonomous cranes at the port in the morning, debate AI risk with regulators after lunch, and meet three sovereign wealth funds in the lift back to your hotel room? That range – from hard-hat logistics to high-level finance – is exactly what SuperAI will put on stage next month.
Where AI ambition meets operational excellence
On June 18-19, 7,000 attendees and more than 1,000 AI-driven companies will converge at MBS for SuperAI. Among them, 15 developer teams will sprint to build working prototypes across five pillars – robotics, healthcare & biotech, finance, climate tech, and decentralised intelligence – in a live GenAI hackathon, while 10 handpicked startups duel in the Genesis Competition for over US$200 000 in prizes, backed by AWS and 500 Global.
Breakout AI Labs, such as the AI Creator Lab with AMD, and community hubs will let everyone from researchers to students test frontier systems in real time. The aim is to show policymakers, factory owners and teenagers what happens when Singapore's reliability meets frontier tech's unpredictability— and then to debate the guardrails and financing that must follow.
Project Moonshot and the Monetary Authority of Singapore's forthcoming AI-risk guidelines prove Singapore will not trade safety for speed. A nation that can reroute the world's busiest container port overnight and stage F1 without a hitch is unusually well placed to write AI's operating manual.
If the 2010s were about adding robots and large language models, the 2020s will be about wiring them together, and the 2030s about exporting that playbook. Singapore's next edge is to turn its dense hardware base into a collaborative, multilingual, regulator-ready AI stack– one the rest of the world will pay for.
My advice is simple: Whether you are a startup closing your first funding round or a global manufacturer testing warehouse humanoids, build and test here, in Singapore. The tracks are laid, the marshals are ready, and – just like on race day – good things happen when the pit crew works like clockwork.
The writer co-founded TOKEN2049 and SuperAI, global platforms convening leaders at the intersection of AI, robotics, and decentralised technologies
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