TLDR: Google Cloud has significantly enhanced its enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI) offerings in Singapore, introducing expanded data residency guarantees, making Gemini AI models available on-premises via Google Distributed Cloud (GDC), and showcasing new agentic applications. These initiatives, announced at the ‘AI Asia: Building Beyond Borders’ conference, aim to solidify Singapore’s position as a regional AI hub and support both public and private sector organizations in their AI transformation journeys.
Singapore, September 1, 2025 – Google Cloud has unveiled a major expansion of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities and infrastructure in Singapore, reinforcing its commitment to advancing the nation’s AI ambitions and serving as a strategic launchpad for Asian companies. The announcements, made at the ‘AI Asia: Building Beyond Borders’ conference on August 28, highlight transformative innovations designed to empower organizations with cutting-edge AI tools while addressing critical data sovereignty and security requirements.
Key innovations include enhanced data residency guarantees within Google Cloud’s Singapore region, allowing organizations across all sectors to not only store their data at-rest but also perform machine learning processing for their AI workloads entirely within Singapore. This capability is now available for high-demand enterprise AI services such as Gemini 2.5 Flash, Google’s low-latency and cost-efficient thinking model accessible via Vertex AI; Vertex AI Search for embedding agentic search into various platforms; and NotebookLM Enterprise, a Google-built agent for information summarization and extraction from complex sources.
Furthermore, Google Cloud has made its powerful Gemini models available on-premises through Google Distributed Cloud (GDC). This addresses the dilemma faced by organizations with strict sovereignty, ultra-low latency, or large data volume requirements, enabling them to leverage Gemini’s full potential while keeping sensitive data within their own data centers, disconnected from the public internet. The general availability of Gemini on GDC air-gapped and a preview of Gemini on GDC connected were announced. Singaporean public sector agencies, including the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies (CSIT), the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech Singapore), and the Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), are among the first globally to access Gemini on GDC air-gapped. This will facilitate the development and deployment of multimodal AI agents for national security and policy applications.
Thomas Kurian, Chief Executive Officer of Google Cloud, emphasized Singapore’s pivotal role, stating, “Singapore is the launchpad for AI in Asia, and today we’re making Google’s most capable models and AI tools available here. By bringing Gemini everywhere – in the public cloud with data residency guarantees, in on-premises or disconnected environments, and at the edge – we are unleashing a wave of innovation for both public sector organizations and businesses across industries. With AI, we are providing a potent catalyst for transformation and creating new economic opportunities.”
Mrs. Josephine Teo, Minister for Digital Development and Information of Singapore, reinforced the nation’s commitment to mutually beneficial partnerships, noting how collaborations with open technology providers like Google Cloud have accelerated the creation of novel and practical AI solutions for Singapore and the world.
New and expanded partnerships were also showcased with prominent Singaporean organizations. DBS Bank is leveraging Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to advance its AI-powered capabilities, with Chief Data and Transformation Officer Nimish Panchmatia projecting ‘more than SG$1 billion in economic value from our AI initiatives this year.’ FairPrice Group (FPG) is pioneering agentic solutions for smarter shopping, including Smart Cart, wellness, and digital wine sommelier assistants at its FairPrice Finest outlet in Punggol Digital District. FPG is also deploying Google Agentspace for employee collaboration and utilizing generative media models like Imagen 4 and Veo 3 on Vertex AI to automate ad creation, achieving a 10-fold reduction in time and a 100-fold reduction in cost for campaigns.
To ensure the safe and responsible deployment of agentic AI, Google, GovTech Singapore, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) are exploring a dedicated AI agents sandbox. This sandbox will rigorously evaluate and refine agentic solutions for public sector use cases, with Google providing GovTech Singapore access to a new browser control tool via the Gemini API, based on Project Mariner.
Google Cloud also expanded its AI Cloud Takeoff (AI CTO) program in partnership with Digital Industry Singapore (DISG). This program offers Google Cloud credits, Skills Boost licenses, and partner consultancy support worth up to SG$500,000 to help Asian enterprises establish a Data Boundary for their AI-driven offerings and meet international data compliance requirements, enabling global expansion.
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Beyond these collaborations, numerous other local enterprises, including Bitsmedia, Carousell, Grab, PropertyGuru, and Prudential, are adopting Google Cloud’s AI platform services to enhance productivity, customer engagement, and innovation across various sectors.
