Google DeepMind expands presence in Singapore, opening new research lab to advance AI in the Asia Pacific region

This press release was issued by Google DeepMind.

The Asia-Pacific region is home to more than half the world's population and is poised for immense growth. The Singapore government’s ambitious and forward-looking approach — exemplified by their National AI Strategy 2.0 and Smart Nation 2.0 and their openness to global talent — make this an excellent location to expand Google DeepMind’s presence as it opens a new AI research lab in Singapore.

This investment builds on Google's longstanding commitment to the Asia-Pacific ecosystem, and follows a more-than doubling of Google DeepMind's APAC team over the past year.

Advancing Gemini and frontier AI impact for Asia Pacific

Google DeepMind’s growing team in Singapore will consist of exceptional research scientists, software engineers, operations and AI impact experts focused on critical areas of research and development to serve the needs of the region and improve our technologies for everyone. This builds on our efforts to pioneer foundational research in linguistic and cultural inclusivity for Asia Pacific, advancing Gemini's core capabilities, and applying the latest models across Google products and for Cloud customers.

The new research lab will be focused on collaboration as Google DeepMind works directly with government, businesses, civil society and world-class academic institutions across the region.

“Singapore’s forward-looking approach and unique position make it the ideal place for our new Google DeepMind AI research lab. We are here to harness the region’s exceptional talent, drive purposeful research, and build the essential partnerships to advance AI responsibly and deliver tangible, global impact.”

Lila Ibrahim

Chief Operating Officer

Google DeepMind

“We welcome Google DeepMind’s decision to establish its first research lab in Southeast Asia in Singapore — an important addition to Singapore’s efforts to build a hub for AI innovation across Asia Pacific. Partnering with DeepMind will help to advance impactful and innovative solutions to global challenges in areas such as healthcare, energy, and climate. This collaboration will also create new opportunities for Singapore’s talent and research community, providing them with access to world-class AI tools for scientific research and discovery.”

Jermaine Loy

Managing Director

EDB

“Google has been a part of the Singapore story for close to two decades, as home to our Asia-Pacific headquarters. The new Google DeepMind research lab in Singapore is a strong signal of the importance of this region and will help to ensure Asia Pacific - which is home to more than half the world’s population - is not just consuming AI, but is an architect and developer of this transformative technology.”

Sanjay Gupta

President

Google Asia Pacific

“A Google DeepMind presence in Southeast Asia is a broader recognition of the region’s AI vibrancy, and the need for systems that account for cultural and linguistic contexts we operate in. We are excited to leverage the team’s expertise to accelerate our work to build LLMs that are more representative of the region’s context and perspectives, and we believe it will build further inroads towards bringing more impactful AI solutions that work for the millions of people - regardless of where they live and the language they speak.”

Dr. Leslie Teo

Senior Director of AI Products

AI Singapore

Building on positive impact

Already, people and organizations in Singapore are applying Google technologies in profoundly positive ways. Beyond core products, like Gemini, Google DeepMind sees creative and exciting examples of its AI technology in action when used collaboratively and responsibly:

In science, a multidisciplinary research team at Singapore's Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) used Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold to pioneer a breakthrough in understanding Parkinson's Disease.
In public services, GovTech, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Google have launched an AI agent sandbox to safely test autonomous solutions for the public sector.
In multilinguality, we have collaborated with AI Singapore to launch Project Aquarium, an open data platform for Southeast Asian Languages. We’ve also expanded our partnership to help develop SEA-LION – a family of LLMs trained and tuned to be representative of Southeast Asia’s cultural contexts and linguistic nuances. This enabled the launch of their first multimodal model, SEA-LION v4, built on Gemma 3’s multimodal capabilities.
In education, we’re giving students in Singapore one-year free access to the Google AI Pro Plan to unlock upgraded AI features for creativity and learning and introduced Gemini Academy to IMDA’s Singapore Digital Office to broaden AI literacy beyond the classroom and make AI accessible to all.
With startups, we are supporting Singaporean AI-first startups through our Google for Startups: AI First accelerator, using generative AI to help tackle significant economic, societal and environmental issues.

These examples reflect what's possible when cutting-edge AI research meets Singapore's spirit of innovation and public purpose.

Looking ahead

As Google DeepMind expands its presence in Singapore, it is committed to ensuring the benefits of AI are realized across the region. Through its new AI research lab, it will continue collaborating with the region’s vibrant ecosystem of partners to unlock AI's transformative benefits for diverse communities.