Anthropic is opening an office in Singapore—its first in Southeast Asia—planting its flag in a market that’s quickly becoming a new battleground for the U.S.’s top AI firms. On Sept. 16, Anthropic announced its expansion to Singapore, making the Southeast Asian city its fifth location in Asia-Pacific, following hubs in Tokyo, Seoul, Bengalaru and Sydney.
The Iran war exposed just how much the world relied on a narrow 20-mile-wide waterway. Soon after the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, the latter threatened to strike ships trying to traverse the Strait of Hormuz, the channel for much of the Middle East’s oil and gas exports. The threat of shortages pushed countries across
“We’re seeing a significant shift in how Asia-based firms are looking at cross-border business,” Sarita Singh, Stripe’s regional head and MD of Southeast Asia, Greater China and South Korea, tells Fortune. “There’s been a big push to find customers and grow outside of the home country.” This marks a departure from the earlier playbook of
One in three Singaporean business owners still use their personal bank accounts for their company banking needs, trying to escape high transaction fees, according to a survey from MariBank, a digital bank owned by Southeast Asian tech firm Sea. That creates tax and legal headaches, as business owners find it difficult to deduce their legitimate
In June, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that there is a 63% chance of a very strong El Niño developing before the end of 2026, potentially rivaling the most severe episodes since records began in 1950. The 1997-98 El Niño, one of the strongest on record, triggered severe floods and droughts across
