The Singapore government will invest more than S$1 billion over the next five years to beef up Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing capability as well as for related talent and industry development, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Lawrence Wong announced in his Budget 2024 speech on Friday.
"We aim to go further – to build new peaks of excellence, and crowd in private sector investments," he said.
Part of the investment will include securing access to advanced chips for AI development and deployment.
He added that the government will also work with companies locally and globally to set up their AI Centres of Excellence in Singapore.
"This aims to spur industry collaboration and innovation, and drive greater value creation across the whole economy," Wong said.
The investment builds on Singapore’s revised National AI Strategy, announced in December 2023.
Singapore is also allocating additional resources to catalyse investments in upgrading the Nationwide Broadband Network.
With the investments, Wong said the government aims to enable mass market access to broadband speeds of up to 10 Gigabits (Gbps) per second in the second half of this decade.
"This is 10 times faster than the broadband speed in most homes today. This also ensures that our connectivity infrastructure will be able to support technologies like AI and immersive media, as they become more pervasive in the future," he added.
The deputy prime minister also hinted at the plans to establish a new National Cybersecurity Command Centre to better coordinate cyber defence operations, improve collaboration between industry and academia, and spur innovation in cybersecurity.
He hopes the initiative to improve the country's capabilities to monitor, detect, and coordinate defences against cyber threats.
