One-North Rezoning Doubles Start-Up Space as Singapore Builds Kampong AI Park

Singapore's start-up ecosystem is about to get twice the room to grow. Proposed zoning changes will assign LaunchPad @ One-North a gross plot ratio of 2.5 — up from the overall ratio of slightly more than 1.0 today — effectively doubling the floor space the estate can build, and clearing the way for Kampong AI, the dedicated AI park the Ministry of Trade and Industry announced in March.

The 9.82-hectare LaunchPad, roughly the size of 14 football fields, was started by JTC in 2015 to cluster start-ups, incubators, accelerators and venture capitalists. It has since housed more than 2,400 companies — including Carousell, PatSnap and Nium — and hosts over 30 incubators, accelerators and venture capital firms. Under the rezoning, JTC will rejuvenate the estate as one integrated development, with adaptive reuse of two flatted factories as Kampong AI's AI block and accommodation block, alongside new event spaces, sports facilities, networking areas, more food and beverage options and sheltered linkways between blocks.

The timeline is already moving. A tender to design and build the AI block — 14,500 sq m of business park space with event and collaboration areas for up to 70 companies — was launched on 29 July and closes on 24 August, with separate tenders for the accommodation block and estate improvements to follow. Kampong AI is slated for completion by 2028.

The rezoning matters beyond real estate. Singapore's AI strategy has always been as much about physical density as digital capability: the one-north model, with research institutes, universities and start-ups within walking distance of each other, is designed to maximise the collisions that produce new ventures. Doubling the floor space is an explicit bet that the AI wave needs room to grow in Singapore — and that a dedicated AI park with housing attached is the right container for it.

Why it matters for Singapore: Kampong AI gives AI founders something few hubs offer — workspace and residential units in the same development, at the heart of the country's deepest tech cluster. For start-ups weighing Singapore against other hubs, the combination of JTC-backed infrastructure, proximity to A*STAR and the universities, and now dedicated AI real estate is a concrete answer to the perennial question of where to build. The 2028 completion date also signals that the government is planning AI infrastructure on a decade-long horizon, not a funding-cycle one.