Machinepower Index / Dossiers / Singapore
Rank 12–15 across the scoring rules tested. How this is tested
Singapore
Diffusion Advantage — For nations that cannot build the frontier but can use it faster than anyone: import the models and win on deployment, across the state and the economy, with public consent.
How the Score, Potential and bottleneck cost are worked out: methodology.
The three layers
Energy, grids, data centres and silicon — the physical capacity to run models at scale.
Compute tracked by Epoch AI: Singapore controls 1,200 H100-equivalents, wherever the sites are. Hosted compute is shown, not scored.
Models, alignment capability, standards influence and the talent that produces them.
The capacity to wire AI into the state and the economy while holding public consent.
Where the score comes from
| Layer | Sub-dimension | Basis | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watts | Planning & Permitting | Assessed | 5.4 |
| Firm Power Capacity | Dataset | 3.5 | |
| Sovereign Compute | Dataset | 5.1 | |
| Hardware & Silicon Access | Dataset | 6.6 | |
| Weights | Frontier Model Output | Assessed | 4.5 |
| Alignment Capability | Assessed | 8.6 | |
| Regulatory Standing | Dataset | 7.8 | |
| Talent Density | Dataset | 5.6 | |
| Will | Policy Capacity | Dataset | 8.5 |
| Public Sector Adoption | Dataset | 9.2 | |
| Workforce Transition | Dataset | 10.0 | |
| Public Trust | Dataset Sources differ | 6.3 |
Assessed marks a measurement we judged rather than took from a dataset: 3 of the 12 here.
Sources differ marks a cell where two sources disagree by more than a point. Public Trust: Trust in AI (7.5) and support for building data centres (5.1) differ by more than a point; the cell is their average.
Sources
Share of adults agreeing that products and services using AI have more benefits than drawbacks; the Index scores public trust as 1 + share ÷ 10. Survey of 23,532 adults across 32 countries, March to April 2026.
View source →Singapore ranks seventh globally (2025 edition) with world-leading public-sector deployment capability and procurement agility.
View source →SEA-LION v4, a multimodal model, leads Southeast Asian language performance in its size class; Qwen-SEA-LION-v4-32B-IT was announced on 17 October 2025, with 4B and 8B vision-language models following.
View source →Singapore's AI Verify framework was formally crosswalked to the US NIST AI Risk Management Framework, published 13 October 2023, with cooperation maintained through the bilateral CET Dialogue.
View source →Used for the workforce measurement. The IMF combines schooling, pay, labour mobility and active labour-market policies; the Index rescales it so the weakest of 173 economies scores 0 and the strongest 10.
View source →A cross-check for planning and permitting, which stays assessed: it scores building permits and electricity connections for ordinary firms, not grid-scale connections for data centres.
View source →Fossil, nuclear, hydro and other dispatchable plant; averaged with generation for firm power.
View source →Second source for talent, averaged with Stanford's count.
View source →Second source for public trust, averaged with Ipsos.
View source →Capital is shown beside the Score, not scored.
View source →Half of public trust: support for building more data centres, scored as 1 + share ÷ 10 and averaged with trust in AI.
View source →Bottlenecks
These hold Singapore below its Potential. Its two lowest scores cost it the most: firm power capacity at 3.5 (part of Watts) and frontier model output at 4.5 (part of Weights).
Assessment
A global exemplar of diffusion advantage. Singapore focuses on being the most efficient user of AI tools. While it lacks sovereign hardware or models, its state capability and societal trust are world-leading.
The art of the possible
Singapore's deployment machine is already world-leading; its ceiling is set by what it can host and own. Regional model leadership through SEA-LION and creative energy solutions (imports, nuclear options) would let the most capable state in the Index command more of its own stack.
Strategic play — Diffusion Advantage
Stay the one place both machinepowers can transact, with the cables, exchanges and trusted rules that make it the Malacca of data, and solve firm power through imports and nuclear options so the most capable state in the Index can host more of its own stack.
Leverage — the nearest position. The Malacca of data. Cables, exchanges and the region's most trusted registry of rules — position is the entire national asset.
Open Singapore in the live Index → — every source behind every number, and the comparison tool.