The AI Agent Market in Singapore: Anthropic's Claude Makes a Leap, Narrowing the Gap with ChatGPT
An analysis of payment flows from Singaporean startups reveals a significant shift in the corporate AI solutions landscape. Claude by Anthropic is experiencing explosive growth: over the past 12 months, the number of paying customers has increased by 258%, and spending on this platform has grown 17-fold. These figures, derived from processing transactions within the Aspire fintech ecosystem, indicate a change in priorities among tech companies in the region.
A year ago, OpenAI dominated with more than a fourfold lead in the number of paying startups. Today, the gap has narrowed to 1.5 times. Claude's share of total AI platform spending by Singaporean startups has reached 37%, a serious indicator for a relatively young product. This suggests that business users are increasingly favoring Anthropic's safer and more controllable models, especially in jurisdictions with strict data privacy requirements.
Structural Changes in Corporate AI Consumption
Overall, the number of Singaporean startups integrating AI tools has grown by 42%. However, the key trend is multi-platform usage: the number of companies using three or more AI services simultaneously has more than doubled. This signals a shift from exclusive reliance on a single model to a hybrid strategy, where startups choose specialized solutions for specific tasks—whether code generation, data analysis, or content work.
My view: Claude's growth in Singapore is not just a statistic but a signal of market maturity. Startups are no longer following the brand; they are voting with their wallets for reliability and security. If Anthropic continues to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, we may witness the formation of a duopoly, where OpenAI and Anthropic divide the corporate segment, leaving niche players to compete for the leftovers.