Singapore Startups Double Down on AI, Running Multiple Platforms at Once
Source: The Business Times
Singapore's startup ecosystem is deepening its commitment to artificial intelligence at a striking pace — the number of young companies subscribing to three or more AI platforms simultaneously more than doubled to 704 over the past year, according to fresh data from fintech firm Aspire.
Singapore's startup ecosystem is deepening its commitment to artificial intelligence at a striking pace — the number of young companies subscribing to three or more AI platforms simultaneously more than doubled to 704 over the past year, according to fresh data from fintech firm Aspire. Paid AI subscriptions overall rose 42 per cent year-on-year, with the average startup now running 1.87 AI platforms, signalling a deliberate multi-model strategy rather than reliance on any single provider.
Aspire's report, which analysed over 10,000 businesses on its platform across FY2025 and FY2026, reveals a market in rapid transition. ChatGPT remains the leader with 2,377 paying clients and 41 per cent of total AI spend among Singapore startups. But Anthropic's Claude is the rising force: its client count surged 258 per cent to 1,537, capturing 37 per cent of spend. Claude users spend 1.4 times more per account than ChatGPT users — US$1,598 versus US$1,144 annually — and total spend on Claude grew 17-fold in a single year. At current growth rates, Claude could match ChatGPT's client count within the next year.
The data shows startups are building heterogeneous AI stacks, deliberately pairing different models for different tasks — coding, content generation, data analysis, customer support. This behaviour, Aspire co-founder Andrea Baronchelli noted, often foreshadows broader enterprise adoption patterns, as startups move faster and experiment more freely than larger organisations.
Why it matters for Singapore: The city-state's startup scene functions as an early-warning system for AI adoption trends across Southeast Asia. Founders here are effectively writing the playbook on multi-model deployment — weighing cost against performance, driving competitive pricing between providers, and normalising the use of multiple AI platforms as standard business infrastructure. For AI companies considering an Asia Pacific expansion, Singapore is the natural beachhead, and these numbers confirm the market is both sophisticated and growing fast.