Nvidia, the global leader in artificial intelligence chips, is set to open a new research center in Singapore, as part of a series of AI-focused initiatives unveiled by the city-state on Wednesday. This center marks Nvidia’s inaugural research hub in Singapore and its second in the Asia Pacific region, underscoring the company’s growing commitment to advancing embodied AI technologies.
In recent years, Nvidia has shifted its focus towards the deployment of embodied AI, developing models, systems, and chips tailored for robotics. The new lab in Singapore will be dedicated to enhancing embodied AI and optimizing AI infrastructure. This endeavor will see Nvidia collaborating closely with academic researchers, industry partners, and government agencies.
Singapore, despite its compact size, is positioning itself as a prime regional hub for AI development, offering a conducive environment for the practical development, testing, and deployment of AI solutions. The city-state is particularly honing in on embodied AI, which encompasses technologies like robots, autonomous vehicles, and drones. This sector is viewed as a key area for innovation, holding potential to revolutionize the service and manufacturing industries.
In addition to Nvidia’s announcement, Singapore revealed plans to launch a testbed later this year. This initiative aims to assist private companies in co-designing, deploying, testing, and validating commercially viable AI robotic technologies. Among the first to leverage this testbed will be industry giants such as Certis, DHL, Grab, and QuikBot.
The city-state appears to be placing a specific focus on embodied AI — a category including robots, autonomous vehicles and drones — which is widely seen as an important next frontier in AI development that could allow for breakthroughs and augmentation across the service sector and manufacturing.
Also on Wednesday, Singapore said it will launch a testbed later this year to help private companies co-design, deploy, test and validate commercially viable AI robotic technologies. Industry leaders like Certis, DHL, Grab and QuikBot are expected to be among the first to use the testbed.
The government will also collaborate with AI robotics companies such as Slamtec, Unitree and QuikBot to trial embodied AI use cases through a new Center for Intelligent Robotics. Tests will include using AI robotics for food and parcel delivery, as well as cleaning and security patrolling, to complement existing human operations.
The announcements came on the first day of Singapore’s ATxSummit, a technology conference with a heavy focus on AI deployment this year.
