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- Google will grow local teams across engineering, research, UX, and cloud, deepening homegrown innovation and exporting solutions globally.
- To date, Singapore has now 159 jobs available on its website, with roles vacant across engineering & technology, legal, marketing & communications, and more.
- Working alongside government plans, Google aims to boost workforce skills and build a secure digital economy.
Google has announced a broader expansion of its AI investments in Singapore, including a larger research & development (R&D) footprint in the country. The updates were shared at the second Google for Singapore event, attended by Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo, and aligning with the country’s national AI strategy.
As part of the expansion, Google will scale up its local R&D capabilities across roles such as software engineering, UX design, research science, and cloud engineering. The goal is to deepen homegrown research expertise while working alongside global teams to develop and export new technologies from Singapore.
The move builds on Google’s longstanding presence in the market. Singapore has served as the company’s Asia Pacific headquarters since 2007 and today houses nearly 3,000 employees. Google has also committed about US$5bn to technical infrastructure locally, including four data centres, cloud regions, and research initiatives such as the Google DeepMind Research Lab, which advances AI development across APAC.
Ben King, Managing Director, Google Singapore said the investments reflect the growing urgency of the AI era.
"More importantly, we also continue to invest in the skills and training programmes every person and business needs to thrive, ensuring this nation continues to lead on the global stage."
Jermaine Loy, Managing Director, EDB, added that the expansion will anchor cutting-edge capabilities locally while creating opportunities for Singaporeans.
"This investment creates exciting jobs for Singaporeans to participate at the forefront of cutting-edge technology development which will address critical global issues."
To date, Google Singapore has 159 jobs available on its website, with roles vacant in fields such as engineering & technology, legal, marketing & communications, and more.
In her closing remarks at the event, Minister Teo emphasised that AI adoption must be grounded in broader digital development, not just technological advancement.
"It's not just having a vibrant digital economy. It's also about having a cohesive and stable digital society where people and communities can live harmoniously with one another, and that's not always a given."
She highlighted the importance of workforce readiness, noting that individuals must build the confidence and capability to use AI tools to transform their work. At the same time, organisations must create environments where these new skills can translate into higher-value outcomes.
Beyond individual upskilling, Minister Teo called for closer collaboration across industry, government, and the research community.
"The capacity, then, to bring their individual skills into the workplace and transform into higher order capability is what is lacking. We believe there must be a way to make the two work together."
At the industry and government level, Minister Teo highlighted that it is important to "crowd in our resources and colleagues in the research and development community, and those amongst our technology teams working within the government."
Building on this, she emphasised crowding in the entire community, whereby when it comes to technology developments, the answer lies in more than one entity. "The value is in bringing people together, allowing them to offer their perspectives and suggest the right solutions."
One final area she touched on was forward-thinking: "We believe that whatever we create in Singapore goes further when others get a chance to benefit from them."
In addition to expansion of the R&D foorprint in Singapore, Google has come up with various key initiatives, which it says are aimed at building a more inclusive and responsible AI economy in Singapore, focused on four key areas:
- Building a future-ready workforce
- The ‘Majulah AI’ initiative aims to fuel Singapore's next wave of growth through the 'Skills Ignition SG' programme in partnership with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) for jobseekers; 'Google for Startups Accelerator: AI First and AI Cloud Takeoff' for entrepreneurs and developers; as well as 'Gemini Academy' for every Singaporean, including seniors.
- Solving for society's challenges
- Expanded its partnership with AI Singapore (AISG) to enable AI-assisted solutions tailored to the needs of Singapore's population.
- Collaborating with local health-tech startup AMILI on a precision nutrition programme that provides personalised lifestyle and nutrition guidance.
- Philanthropic arm, Google.org, has provided US$1mn in funding to AISG’s Project Aquarium, an open data platform for the region's languages.
- Driving innovation for growth
- Launch of its Google Cloud Singapore Engineering Centre to solve high-stakes global challenges while supporting frontier industries like robotics and clean energy.
- Creating a secure ecosystem
- Launch of an AI Center of Excellence for security to identify and get ahead of risks in frontier areas such as agentic AI.
- Started rolling out its age assurance solutions in Singapore, allowing users estimated to be under 18 with safer, age-appropriate experiences, such as SafeSearch by default and enhanced content restrictions and safeguards on YouTube and Google Play.
Lead image / EDB Facebook
(Included in photo: Philbert Gomez, Executive Director and Senior Vice President, Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), Beng Kong Pee, Executive Vice President, Member of Executive Committee, EDB, Moe Abdula, VP, Customer Engineering, APAC, Google Cloud, Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information, Anat Ashkenazi, Chief Financial Officer, Google, Laurie Richardson, VP, Trust & Safety, Google, and other leaders.)
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