Singapore is a key hub for AI companies
The global AI boom is gathering pace, and Singapore is emerging as a key hub for companies looking to expand their presence in the region.
Over the past year, more AI firms have set up shop here, bringing with them a growing number of job opportunities—and increasingly competitive salaries.
Just two days ago, on Oct 14, Anthropic opened its Singapore office, its fifth in Asia-Pacific and first in Southeast Asia. It previously had nine roles listed across finance, sales, applied AI, marketing and economic research.
In Aug, OpenAI was reportedly in talks to lease about 100,000 sq ft at Shaw Tower. In May, it also committed more than S$300 million to Singapore, including plans for a Singapore Applied AI Lab that will hire more than 200 specialists.
The hiring momentum is also translating into higher pay, with salaries for AI roles in Singapore climbing 15–25% over the past year.
Vulcan Post looks at which companies are hiring for AI talent in Singapore, and how much they’re paying.
Who’s hiring?
For Chinese tech companies, Singapore’s universities have become a key recruiting ground.
Huawei, Alibaba, ByteDance and Trip.com all stepped up campus hiring at NTU and NUS in 2026. Ant Group says more than 70% of the technical roles in its 2026 spring graduate campaign focus on AI.
Pay is a big part of the pitch. These firms are reportedly offering packages from S$200,000 a year to lure AI PhD holders.
The American frontier labs are also coming, but mostly to sell and deploy rather than to do research.
A Tech in Asia tracker found 30 of the world’s 250 most valuable AI companies hiring in Singapore as of mid-June, led by OpenAI with 37 positions.
Besides sales, on the hardware side, semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research is adding about 200 jobs in Singapore this year, nearly 90% of them specialised engineering roles in areas like high-bandwidth memory, advanced packaging and silicon photonics that support AI chips.
Analysts read this as Singapore becoming a regional sales and deployment hub for AI.
But it is not only tech firms chasing AI talent.
Recruitment agency PERSOL’s 2026/27 survey finds AI and data skills rank among the top 10 in-demand skills across all 14 functions and industries it covers, so employers in every sector are competing for the same people.
How much are they paying?
It depends heavily on the rung of the ladder. We’ve compiled figures from various sources:
| Source | Role | Salary per year |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Walters | Fresh AI hires | S$70,000–S$90,000 |
| Robert Walters | Top AI researchers and leaders | Close to S$350,000 |
| PERSOL 2026/27 | AI engineers | S$72,000–S$144,000 |
| PERSOL 2026/27 | Data scientists | S$90,000–S$168,000 |
| PERSOL 2026/27 | Cybersecurity managers | S$84,000–S$180,000 |
| Hays | AI engineers | S$72,000–S$200,000 |
| Selby Jennings | Junior AI researchers at global tech firms and banks | S$180,000–S$220,000 |
AI pay is also climbing much faster than wages elsewhere. Robert Walters says it has climbed 15–25% in the past year, against 4.9% nominal wage growth for full-time workers.
That is roughly three to five times faster.
Looking ahead, Michael Page expects average tech pay increases of 6–10% in 2026, with AI, cloud engineering and cybersecurity roles reaching as high as 18%, and says people who switch jobs can secure 10–15% increases.
There are plenty of opportunities
Demand for AI-related jobs is split into three groups: people who use AI, people who build it, and people who sell and deploy it.
But the real scarcity is among builders. ManpowerGroup ranked AI development (26%) and AI literacy (25%) as Singapore’s hardest-to-fill skills for the first time, and Southeast Asia has just 1.4 qualified AI candidates per 10 open roles, versus 2.8 in North America.
To boost national AI readiness, the government aims to triple the pool of AI practitioners to 15,000 over three to five years as part of the National AI Strategy 2.0.
So, there are plenty of opportunities—but landing the most lucrative roles will require more than just familiarity with AI.
As companies compete for a limited pool of talent, those with the technical expertise to build AI systems or the skills to apply them effectively in business are likely to be in the strongest position to benefit from the boom.
- Read other articles we’ve written on Singapore’s job landscape here.
Featured Image Credit: CoStar/ NYTIMES/ Bytedance/ depositphotos
