AI Giants' S$300M Salaries Are Real — But How Deep Are Their Roots in Singapore?

Singapore has become one of the battlegrounds in the global war for AI talent. American giants OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are deepening their presence in the city-state, while Chinese firms like Alibaba, Huawei and ByteDance increasingly treat it as both a regional base and a recruiting ground — with fresh AI hires drawing S$70,000 to S$90,000 and the most sought-after PhD-level specialists commanding packages of S$200,000 to S$350,000.

Behind the salary headlines, though, lies a sharper question that Vulcan Post's analysis presses: how serious is the investment actually, and how much of it survives an AI downturn? In May, OpenAI announced more than S$300 million for its Singapore initiative, including its first Applied AI Lab outside the United States and more than 200 technical jobs. Google DeepMind has opened a Singapore research lab and expanded government partnerships in healthcare and scientific research, while Anthropic — backed by GIC and Temasek — has begun building a presence that could become a major regional operation. Alibaba chose the city for its first AI Global Competency Center.

Around 50 Chinese AI-related firms have reportedly set up shop in Singapore since 2024, drawn by its legal system, access to international capital and a rare ability to operate comfortably between China and the West. But the Manus saga shows how fragile that arrangement can be: the startup relocated its entire operation to Singapore before Meta agreed to buy it for around US$2 billion, only for Beijing to intervene and unwind the deal. The warning salvo may discourage mainland companies from using Singapore as a neutral link to global customers.

The biggest risk, however, is outside Singapore's control. Global AI capex is rising far faster than the revenues AI actually produces, and MAS managing director Chia Der Jiun has warned that a major retrenchment in AI investment could sharply weaken global growth. Singapore has raised its 2026 GDP growth forecast to around 5 per cent partly on AI-driven demand, which means the economy is now unusually exposed to any sudden stop in the buildout.

Why it matters for Singapore: The most durable AI investments, as the piece notes, are not the ones producing the biggest salary headlines today but those that become difficult to remove tomorrow — research labs, engineering teams, intellectual property and operations embedded in the local economy. For Singapore, the takeaway is straightforward: the talent war is real, but the real prize is converting flashy announcements into anchored commitments that stay through the next cycle.