Singtel Receives S$28 Million in AI Funding Under Singapore Government Partnership
Source: Tech in Asia
Singtel Singapore has secured up to S$28 million in first-phase funding through a multi-year AI partnership with Digital Industry Singapore (DISG). The investment will fuel AI hiring, infrastructure, and workforce training across the telecom group's operations.
Singtel Singapore has secured first-phase funding of up to S$28 million (US$21.8 million) as part of a multi-year AI partnership with Digital Industry Singapore (DISG), the government office housed within the Ministry of Communications and Information. The programme targets AI adoption across four pillars: AI-enabled operations, digital infrastructure, customer platforms, and workforce development.
The funding will be directed toward AI hiring and talent development, governance frameworks, and advisory and implementation expertise needed to deploy AI at scale within Singtel's operations. The telecom group said it has already trained approximately 13,000 employees in Singapore and aims to extend AI training to its entire Singapore-based workforce.
DISG was established in 2019 to drive digital transformation across Singapore's industry clusters and has supported over 50 companies in launching AI centres of excellence to date. The partnership aligns with Singapore's National AI Strategy, which identifies industry adoption, compute infrastructure, and trust as priority pillars for national AI development.
Why it matters for Singapore: Singtel is a bellwether for corporate AI adoption in Singapore — when the country's largest telecom group commits to retraining its entire local workforce on AI, it signals a shift from experimental AI pilots to scaled deployment. The DISG partnership model, where government funding de-risks private-sector AI investment, is exactly the kind of public-private mechanism that has worked in other domains. For the broader ecosystem, Singtel's AI buildout creates downstream demand for everything from data centre capacity to AI SaaS providers, reinforcing Singapore's position as an AI hub in Southeast Asia.