Microsoft pledged to complete the investment by the end of 2029 to ramp up the AI rollout in Singapore.
The vendor’s vice chair and president, Brad Smith, made the commitment during a visit to the city state, where he spoke on April 1 at the ATx Inspire event.
The investment will focus on building AI and cloud infrastructure, as well as providing students and workers with an array of opportunities to learn AI skills.
Microsoft sees Singapore as a potential hub for AI in Asia — the country’s rapid adoption of the technology has ranked it number two worldwide in Microsoft’s recent AI Diffusion Report — and Smith refers to it as a “global digital leader”.
The vendor outlined a series of specific measures, including a plan to make Microsoft 365 Premium with Copilot free for 12 months to every higher education student in Singapore. It’s estimated that more than 200,000 people would benefit from this offer.
In tandem with this, Microsoft is also expanding its Elevate for Educators program to Singapore. Introduced in India earlier this year, the upskilling initiative is designed to build confidence among teachers and lecturers in using AI responsibly in the classroom, whether at primary or secondary school or in higher education.
“Baseline AI skills are increasingly becoming as fundamental as digital literacy,” Dr. Janil Puthucheary, government minister for education, said in a statement. By equipping students with a hands-on experience using AI tools and supporting our educators to adopt them confidently, we are strengthening the foundations for Singapore’s future workforce and training them to use AI with confidence, discernment and trust.”
At the same time, Microsoft plans to introduce an Elevate for Changemakers program to support non-profit organizations and social impact groups to encourage AI takeup in their communities.
Microsoft’s pledge to Singapore came just 24 hours after Smith revealed a $1 billion package to help build out Thailand’s AI infrastructure following a visit to Bangkok, where he met with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul.