In recent years, the world’s top AI companies have been aggressively expanding into Asia, attracted by the region’s high usage of their AI tools. But they have yet to form a consensus on where to establish their Asia headquarters. AI pioneer OpenAI selected Singapore, for example, while rival Anthropic picked Japan and Nvidia-backed Cohere chose South Korea.
For Antoine Blondeau, cofounder and managing partner of AI-focused VC firm Alpha Intelligence Capital, the choice is clear: Singapore. His Luxembourg-based firm has already invested in two startups in the city-state—AI art generator PixAI and semiconductor defect analytics tool provider Sixsense—and is currently in the middle of closing a third investment that has yet to be announced.
Elsewhere in the world, Alpha Intelligence Capital has invested in OpenAI, AI video model developer Higgsfield (San Francisco), AI-powered navigation systems provider Advanced Navigation (Sydney), AI-based medical imaging leader Aidoc (Tel Aviv) and AI-enabled cybersecurity reinsurance provider Envelop (London). Its portfolio exits include Chinese AI pioneer SenseTime (listed in Hong Kong in 2021) and British AI service provider InstaDeep (acquired by BioNTech for $680 million in 2023). The firm has raised about $500 million across two funds since its launch in 2018.
“Singapore can attract a hefty dose of mainland Chinese talent, Indian talent, it can attract talent from pretty much everywhere,” says Blondeau, who splits his time between his two homes in San Francisco and Dubai when he’s not traveling, in an interview on the sidelines of the Forbes Global CEO Conference last month in Jakarta.
“Particularly from China,” he adds, “and China has a very large pool of very highly capable talent and a high skill set.” Manus, for example, the AI agent startup backed by Benchmark, Tencent and HSG (formerly Sequoia China), relocated to Singapore from China earlier this year. Fast-fashion giant Shein, investment firm Hillhouse and HSG have all made the same move in recent years.
Blondeau draws a comparison between Singapore and Tel Aviv, one of the top global startup hubs that created cybersecurity software provider Wiz (acquired by Google for $32 billion) and car-camera pioneer Mobileye (bought by Intel for $15 billion). “In Singapore, you have a very compact geographic footprint with virtually all industries, from finance and logistics to telecom to airlines, including regional headquarters of global corporations,” he says. Google and Meta, for example, use Singapore as their regional headquarters.
OpenAI’s decision to name Singapore its Asia hub was driven by the city-state’s emergence “as a leader in artificial intelligence,” CEO Sam Altman said in a statement last year. OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, added in May that Singapore has the highest per capita usage of ChatGPT.
Beyond Singapore, Blondeau identifies three other markets poised to become AI hubs: South Korea, Taiwan and India.
He foresees a major role for South Korea in AI-powered robots, including but not limited to humanoids, used across various sectors like automotive, logistics and shipbuilding. “South Korea has a shot at taking the best of AI and taking the best robotics, and trying to merge this into a value proposition that actually works,” he says.
Some of South Korea’s biggest companies are already involved in robotics. Samsung Electronics invested about $180 million in Rainbow Robotics to become its largest shareholder last year. Hyundai Motor bought a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics from SoftBank Group in 2020, valuing the maker of dog-like robots at around $1.1 billion. Doosan Group listed its collaborative robots unit Doosan Robotics in 2023, raising $312 million in what was South Korea’s largest IPO that year.
OpenAI has already set up shop in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, this year. The country has the highest number of paying subscribers outside the U.S. for ChatGPT. Anthropic plans to open an office in Seoul early next year to be closer to its customers, which include SK Telecom and legal tech startup Law&Company. “The developer community in Korea is one of our strongest worldwide, and a Korean software engineer currently ranks as the world’s top Claude Code user, exemplifying the depth of technical talent and adoption in the market,” Anthropic said in a statement.
Blondeau’s confidence in Taiwan stems from its world-leading hardware industry. The island is home to major electronics manufacturers like Foxconn, Quanta and Wistron that Blondeau says can move up the stack into AI-related hardware.
As more people are involved in building AI-enabled hardware, Blondeau believes the exposure will educate a new wave of AI talent. “Taiwan in three or four years out will be an interesting place to actually build expertise, not just in hardware, but also in the AI-enabled device space,” he says.
As for India, Blondeau highlights how the country’s $250 billion outsourcing industry—the world’s largest—is undergoing a transformation powered by AI and fostering a new generation of AI talent. “Today, it’s human-based intelligence, like software engineers, some of that is going to have to move to machine intelligence,” he says. India’s largest outsourcing firms—Wipro, Infosys, HCLTech, and Tata Consultancy Services—have all been investing in AI solutions, such as chatbots designed to replace call centers.
OpenAI is slated to open an office in New Delhi by the end of the year. The country is the second-largest market by user numbers and the most number of student users on ChatGPT. “India has all the ingredients to become a global AI leader—amazing tech talent, a world-class developer ecosystem, and strong government support through the IndiaAI Mission,” Altman said in a statement.
Anthropic plans to set up shop in Bangalore, India’s high-tech hub, early next year. The country is also the second-largest market by user numbers of the startup’s Claude chatbot. “India is compelling because of the scale of its technical talent and the commitment from the Indian government to ensure the benefits of artificial intelligence reach all areas of society, not just concentrated pockets,” Dario Amodei, cofounder and CEO of Anthropic, said in a statement.
Nandan Nilekani, the billionaire cofounder of Infosys, said in a talk in April at the Global Technology Summit that he believes India will be the “AI use” capital of the world.
“I think India is where China was three to seven years ago,” says Blondeau. “India is slated for a massive increase in value in the whole space.”
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