Singapore To Invest More Than S$1 Billion In AI Research And Development
Singapore is investing more than S$1 billion (US$786 million) in its National AI Research and Development Plan (NAIRD) to strengthen public artificial intelligence research capabilities over five years from 2025 to 2030, the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) said on Saturday (Jan 24).
The plan, announced by Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo at the Singapore AI Research Week 2026 gala dinner, supports Singapore’s broader AI ambitions under its updated National AI Strategy (NAIS) 2.0.It builds on ongoing AI research efforts in research, innovation and enterprise, MDDI said.
Singapore launched its first National AI Strategy in 2019, which saw the country embark on national AI projects in education, healthcare, logistics, security and municipal services.
The updated NAIS 2.0, announced by then-Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in 2023, aimed to more than triple the number of AI practitioners to 15,000, and help Singapore become a place where the world’s top AI creators gather.
The latest S$1 billion investment taps on the National Research Foundation (NRF) investment of S$37 billion in research, innovation and enterprise, announced in December last year, and the previous tranche of S$28 billion.
The S$37 billion investment will address various needs, including growing and enhancing Singapore’s talent pool, and leveraging AI as a transformative force over the next five years, NRF then said.NAIRD focuses on three key areas: fundamental AI research, applied AI research and talent.
Despite breakthroughs, there are “fundamental limitations” in AI development, Mrs Teo said.
“For example, AI training and inference remain extremely resource-intensive. Their draw on energy and water cannot be ignored,” she said, adding that Singapore already has one of the region’s densest concentrations of data centre capacity.
Under the plan, Singapore will establish AI research centres of excellence that house local and international researchers.
The research centres of excellence, hosted in public research institutions, will focus on “long-term, difficult questions”, Mrs Teo said.
They will advance research and development efforts in areas such as responsible AI, which safeguards against AI risks and protects AI systems from being exploited.
CNA
