India Emerges as AI Powerhouse: Singapore’s GIC Sees Strategic Growth Potential

As the global race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominance intensifies, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, is placing a strategic bet on India. With over $700 billion in assets under management, GIC’s investment choices are closely watched as indicators of long-term global economic trends. In its latest approach, the firm has identified India as a core engine of AI-led growth, drawn by the country’s robust digital infrastructure, abundant talent pool, and accelerating technology adoption across sectors.

In an exclusive interview with Mint, Bryan Yeo, GIC’s Group Chief Investment Officer, detailed the firm’s approach to AI investments in India and how it sees the nation shaping the future of innovation and enterprise transformation.

Why India Stands Out in the AI Race

India’s AI potential is underpinned by several unique strengths:

  1. Demographic Dividend: India’s young, tech-savvy population is one of the largest globally, offering a vast pool of engineers, developers, and data scientists.
  2. Rapid Digitization: From Aadhaar to UPI, India has embraced digital infrastructure more rapidly than many developed economies.
  3. Startup Ecosystem: India now ranks among the top countries globally in terms of the number of startups, many of which are focused on AI, machine learning, and deep tech.

These factors make India not just a consumption market but a production hub for next-gen AI solutions.

GIC’s Long-Term Investment Philosophy

GIC is known for taking a thematic and long-term approach to investing. Rather than chasing short-term gains or reacting to geopolitical shocks, the firm identifies enduring megatrends—AI being one of them.

Bryan Yeo emphasized that GIC views AI as a “foundational, multi-decade theme”, not just a passing trend. The fund’s objective is to identify and support early-stage companies, technology enablers, and infrastructure developers who are contributing to AI’s evolution.

While acknowledging the rising geopolitical tensions—particularly between the US and China or the effects of global trade disruptions—Yeo clarified that these do not alter GIC’s core thesis. India, with its democratic framework and open market economy, offers stability, scalability, and sustainability—making it a favored destination for AI investment.

AI Investment Framework: Enablers, Monetizers, Adopters

GIC approaches the AI value chain through three broad categories:

  1. Enablers: These are companies building the infrastructure necessary for AI to thrive—data centers, cloud computing, semiconductors, and networks.
  2. Monetizers: Startups that develop AI-native platforms, tools, and algorithms with commercial applications fall under this category.
  3. Adopters: Larger firms and conglomerates integrating AI to transform productivity, customer experience, or decision-making.

In India, GIC is investing in all three verticals but shows particular interest in mid-sized and large-scale enterprises that are embedding AI into sectors like healthcare, finance, logistics, and manufacturing.

India-Specific Investment Strategy

GIC’s approach in India is slightly different compared to other markets. While they have broader global exposure in AI enablers—like semiconductor partnerships or global cloud platforms—in India, the focus is on bottom-up investing.

This means identifying companies from the ground level that show promise in applying AI effectively to solve regional or industry-specific problems. For example, a fintech startup using AI to enable credit scoring for rural populations or an agritech firm deploying AI to predict crop yields.

This tailored approach not only supports India’s local innovation ecosystem but also aligns with GIC’s risk-adjusted, diversified investment mandate.

The Role of the Bridge Forum

An important tool in GIC’s India playbook is the Bridge Forum—its flagship platform for connecting emerging technology companies with global capital and enterprise partners.

Held most recently in Silicon Valley in May 2025, the forum brought together over 500 curated interactions between 250+ founders and an equal number of top-level executives. Indian startups like Flipkart, Razorpay, Zepto, and international giants such as Microsoft and Databricks participated.

In 2023, the forum was hosted in India for the first time, underscoring GIC’s growing commitment to the Indian tech landscape. This version had a sharper focus on AI and was designed to spark co-innovation between Indian startups and global corporates.

The Bridge Forum is more than just a networking event—it acts as a strategic collaboration engine, enabling promising startups to fast-track product development, enter global markets, and attract further investment.

Public and Private Equity Play

A notable aspect of GIC’s AI strategy in India is its dual focus on public and private equity. The firm is investing not only in early-stage startups but also in publicly listed companies that are embracing AI to improve operations or deliver new products and services.

This layered approach helps balance the risk-return profile of the portfolio and ensures exposure to both high-growth opportunities and relatively stable performers.

As Bryan Yeo noted, “We are invested in various layers of the Indian AI ecosystem through public and private equity.” This diversified positioning allows GIC to adapt its strategies as markets evolve and as technologies mature.

Implications for India’s Economy

GIC’s focus on India as an AI powerhouse has broader economic implications. When large institutional investors commit significant capital, they bring with them not just money but also:

  • Global Best Practices
  • Governance Standards
  • International Market Access
  • Sectoral Expertise

For Indian startups and enterprises, GIC’s backing is often seen as a stamp of credibility, helping them attract additional funding, partnerships, and talent.

Moreover, this also signals to other global investors that India is not just a developing economy but a technology creator and exporter, particularly in AI, SaaS, and data analytics.

Conclusion: India and the Future of AI

The endorsement of India by a conservative, long-term investor like GIC reinforces the idea that the country is poised to lead the global AI revolution. With its unmatched combination of scale, skills, and speed, India has the ingredients necessary to become the next Silicon Valley of AI—if not in geography, certainly in spirit.

GIC’s involvement, through structured investments, platforms like the Bridge Forum, and a deep understanding of the Indian innovation landscape, could catalyze a wave of AI-led transformation. From infrastructure to implementation, from startups to unicorns, India is where the future of artificial intelligence is taking shape—and Singapore’s GIC is making sure it has a front-row seat.

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