Prime Highlights
- Nvidia’s Singapore lab marks its first research hub in the city-state and second across Asia Pacific.
- Singapore will launch an embodied AI testbed this year for private companies to test robotic technologies.
Key Facts
- Nvidia is a US-based global leader in AI chips, increasingly focused on robotics and embodied AI.
- Embodied AI covers robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles, seen as AI’s next major development frontier.
Background
NVIDIA will launch its first research centre in Singapore, marking its second such presence in the Asia Pacific region. The new lab will focus on advancing embodied AI and improving the efficiency of AI infrastructure, working alongside university researchers, industry partners, and government agencies.
The announcement came on the opening day of Singapore’s ATxSummit, a technology conference centred heavily on AI deployment this year, where the city-state unveiled a series of AI-related initiatives aimed at strengthening its position as a regional AI hub.
Singapore is placing particular emphasis on embodied AI, a category covering robots, autonomous vehicles, and drones, widely regarded as the next major frontier in AI development, with potential to drive breakthroughs across manufacturing and the service sector.
As part of the broader push, Singapore will launch a testbed later this year to help private companies co-design, deploy, test, and validate commercially viable AI robotic technologies. Industry players such as Certis, DHL, Grab, and QuikBot are expected to be among the first to use the facility.
The government will also collaborate with AI robotics companies, including Slamtec, Unitree, and QuikBot, through a new Centre for Intelligent Robotics. These include the use of AI robots to deliver food and parcels, clean up, and patrol for security reasons, in addition to the work being done by humans.
In the recent past, NVIDIA has been working hard to develop robots, developing models, systems, and chips for robots. Singapore, although a small nation, remains the best place for the development of AI technology.