The AI agent market in Singapore: Anthropic's Claude is rapidly closing the gap with ChatGPT
The Singapore startup ecosystem is demonstrating a sharp shift in the balance of power in the AI assistant market. Anthropic's Claude model, which until recently was considered a clear underdog, has made an impressive leap, significantly narrowing the gap with the dominant ChatGPT from OpenAI.
According to my data, based on an analysis of transactions from the fintech platform Aspire, the number of paying Claude clients among Singapore startups has soared by 258% over the past year. Even more telling is the growth in spending on this service — it has increased 17-fold. For comparison, a year ago, OpenAI had more than four times as many paying clients among local startups. Today, that gap has narrowed to 1.5 times, and Claude's share of total spending on AI platforms has reached 37%.
The overall trend is also impressive: the number of Singapore startups actively using AI tools has grown by 42%. At the same time, companies are increasingly not limiting themselves to a single provider — the number of startups working with three or more platforms simultaneously has more than doubled. This indicates that the market is becoming more mature and diversified.
Expert Analysis
This dynamic is no coincidence. Claude attracts startups with its focus on safety and accuracy, which is critically important for financial and legal technologies that are actively developing in Singapore. The growth in multi-platform users also confirms that businesses are no longer relying on a single vendor and are striving for hybrid solutions, leveraging the strengths of each model.
In my opinion, if Anthropic maintains its current pace, we could witness full parity between Claude and ChatGPT in the region within the coming quarters. Singapore is becoming a testing ground for a true battle of AI giants, and startups here are the main beneficiaries of this competition.