A Small City Competing With the Biggest Tech Hubs
Singapore has been named one of the world's 12 leading technology powerhouses in the Global Tech Talent Guidebook 2025, compiled by real estate services firm CBRE. The recognition places the city alongside San Francisco, London, Beijing and Bengaluru, even as expensive housing, office rents and competition for investment test its appeal.
Contents
- A Small City Competing With the Biggest Tech Hubs
- Education Helps Singapore Compete Above Its Size
- High Salaries Come With High Living Costs
- AI Funding Reveals a Gap With the United States
- A S$300 Million Commitment to Quantum Technology
- Building Local Skills While Welcoming Global Talent
- Regional Partnerships Offer Another Route to Scale
- Key Points
Singapore is the smallest of the five Asia-Pacific hubs on the list. Its strengths come from a highly educated workforce, a mature technology ecosystem and a business environment that attracts companies, capital and skilled workers. Its ability to build a sophisticated artificial intelligence ecosystem is a central part of maintaining that position.
The figures show both the city's advantages and its constraints. Nearly 45% of its 4.3 million working-age residents have at least a university degree. Software engineers earn average annual base salaries of around US$111,000, yet spend more than 29% of their salaries on rent alone.
Investment presents another challenge. Global venture funding related to AI reached a record US$129 billion in 2024, while Singapore attracted US$2.5 billion, less than 2% of that total. Recognition as a leading technology centre therefore sits alongside a much smaller share of the money financing AI businesses.
Singapore's response combines investment in research, education and innovation with access to international expertise and regional partnerships. Its strategy centres on valuable work such as AI development, product innovation and regional leadership, while seeking ways to support growth within a small domestic talent pool.
Education Helps Singapore Compete Above Its Size
Singapore ranks just behind Ireland and Switzerland in education levels, with nearly 45% of its working-age residents holding at least a university degree. That concentration of qualifications supports a technology sector with both frontline and supporting roles.
Ravi Nippani, head of regional industries and solutions at Mercer Asia, described the breadth of the ecosystem and Singapore's position relative to much larger populations:
Singapore's tech ecosystem is quite mature and vibrant in terms of roles, encompassing both front-line and supporting positions. When compared with the sheer size of the working population in China and India, Singapore is more than punching its weight and can rightly be given powerhouse status.
Asia-Pacific has the largest technology talent pools globally. Beijing, Shanghai and Bengaluru each have more than 500,000 technology professionals. Singapore competes through its concentration of skills and the types of work companies choose to place there, despite its smaller population.
AI research, product innovation and regional leadership are particular areas of focus. These roles help explain how a small city can hold a prominent place among technology centres whose workforces are much larger.
High Salaries Come With High Living Costs
Singapore ranks 24th among 115 markets for software engineer wages, with average annual base salaries of around US$111,000. Those earnings are part of its appeal to skilled workers, but housing takes a substantial share.
Software engineers spend more than 29% of their salaries on rent alone. Apartment rents are among the highest worldwide, while office rents are second only to Paris globally. Employers therefore face pressure from the cost of their premises and from salary expectations shaped by the cost of living.
Jonathan Lasenby, head of technology and telecoms at executive search firm Ethos BeathChapman, explained how these costs affect businesses and workers:
Together, [high office and apartment rents] contribute to higher operational costs, driven by both rental overheads and salary expectations. This challenges Singapore's positioning relative to other tech powerhouse markets. Candidates may increasingly weigh cost of living when deciding where to live and work, especially as remote work and distributed teams become more viable.
Remote work gives technology professionals greater flexibility over where they live. For Singapore, attracting and retaining talent depends partly on how workers weigh pay against housing and other living costs. For companies, the same calculation includes both wages and office space.
AI Funding Reveals a Gap With the United States
Global venture funding related to AI reached a record US$129 billion in 2024. Singapore's US$2.5 billion represented less than 2% of the total, with the bulk of funding continuing to flow to established markets such as the United States.
Venture capital is investment in businesses seeking to grow. The comparison shows the scale of Singapore's challenge: its standing as a technology hub has yet to translate into a similarly large share of global AI investment.
Rohini Saluja, CBRE's head of consulting and integrated client solutions for Asia-Pacific, described the distance between Singapore and the largest funding destinations:
We have some way to go to compete with markets in the US, for instance, which takes the bulk [of venture capital].
Singapore's funding position matters alongside its workforce strengths. A highly educated population and a mature business ecosystem help attract technology activity, while investment supplies money for businesses developing and expanding their work. The city faces competition on both fronts.
A S$300 Million Commitment to Quantum Technology
Singapore has announced S$300 million, about US$220 million, over the next five years for quantum technology research and talent development. The National Quantum Strategy aims to position the country as a leader in quantum computing and related fields.
Quantum technology is identified as an area expected to drive the next wave of technological breakthroughs after AI. The investment extends Singapore's research ambitions beyond the technologies drawing attention and funding today.
The National Quantum Scholarships Scheme will support up to 200 graduates at master's and PhD levels. Its purpose is to build a steady pipeline of local talent able to contribute to this work.
The funding and scholarships address connected needs: research requires sustained investment, and developing the work requires people with advanced training. The commitment sets out a five-year spending period and a target for graduate support.
Building Local Skills While Welcoming Global Talent
Singapore's broader AI Strategy 2.0 focuses on anchoring valuable jobs that are not easily replicated elsewhere. AI development, product innovation and regional leadership are among the roles it seeks to retain.
Education and research investment form one part of that effort. Singapore also remains open to international expertise through schemes including ONE Pass and Tech.Pass, recognising the contribution of global talent to innovation.
The approach combines developing local skills with bringing in expertise from abroad. The quantum scholarships support the local pipeline, while the talent schemes provide routes for international specialists.
Competition to retain skilled people remains pressing. The United States and other Western countries seek to attract workers with competitive salaries and a higher quality of life. Singapore and other Asia-Pacific hubs must keep their best talent while competing for people from elsewhere.
Geopolitical shifts and the rise of AI are also influencing where talent and investment move. These pressures make workforce decisions part of Singapore's wider effort to maintain its position among leading technology centres.
Regional Partnerships Offer Another Route to Scale
Singapore is exploring ways to build talent pools overseas and access them through partnerships. The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone is one example of regional cooperation that could help expand access to people and skills.
This approach can ease pressure to bring foreign talent into Singapore while creating scale through cooperation. It offers a way to support a larger network of technology activity beyond the city itself.
Saluja described the reasoning behind using partnerships to expand access to talent:
You can't keep moving people and creating other issues. All you can do is create scale through these partnerships.
Auckland, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta are also emerging as technology hubs. Their rise adds to a regional environment in which Singapore must keep adapting its approach to talent and investment.
Singapore's position rests on several strengths working together: education, research, an established business ecosystem and access to international expertise. Its high costs and relatively small share of AI venture funding remain practical challenges. Regional cooperation gives it another way to pursue growth alongside investment at home.
Key Points
- Singapore is one of 12 global technology powerhouses in CBRE's Global Tech Talent Guidebook 2025 and the smallest of five Asia-Pacific hubs listed.
- Nearly 45% of its 4.3 million working-age residents hold at least a university degree.
- Software engineers earn around US$111,000 in annual base pay and spend more than 29% of their salaries on rent.
- Singapore attracted US$2.5 billion of the record US$129 billion in global AI venture funding in 2024.
- The National Quantum Strategy commits S$300 million over five years, with scholarships supporting up to 200 master's and PhD graduates.
- AI Strategy 2.0, international talent schemes and regional partnerships support Singapore's efforts to retain valuable technology work.
