H2O.ai's Singapore Lab Aims to Turn the Republic From AI User to AI Maker

H2O.ai founder Sri Ambati on why Singapore's constraints and demanding market make it a testbed for sovereign AI.

SINGAPORE, Sept. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Sri Ambati, founder and chief executive of H2O.ai, spoke to Kestone Global about why the company has set up a forward deployed AI lab in Singapore, and what he thinks a small, land-scarce country can pull off that bigger ones can't.

Kestone Global: Singapore is small, short on land and has an ageing population. Why build here rather than somewhere with more room to grow?

Ambati: Because those limits do some of the work for us. When you don't have spare land or spare people, you end up leaning on AI and robotics just to keep productivity moving, so the pressure to get it right is higher here than in most places we operate. And the customers are demanding. Government agencies, private companies, they're already AI-literate, so our products get pushed harder in Singapore than they would somewhere more forgiving. I'd rather build against that kind of resistance than in a market that lets us coast.

Kestone Global: You talk a lot about "Sovereign AI."What does that actually mean for a country like Singapore?

Ambati: I'd compare it to a power grid, or water supply. You either own and control your core AI systems or you don't, and using something isn't the same as owning it. A country becomes AI-sovereign when it can diagnose a model, debug it, improve it, build on it, not just license someone else's and stop there. For Singapore that means building up local data, local infrastructure and local talent, instead of importing all three off the shelf.

Kestone Global: How do you actually build that local talent base, in practice?

Ambati: We put local engineers on live projects next to our most senior people, some of whom are Kaggle Grandmasters. Not a course, not a workshop, an actual project with actual stakes. Sitting next to someone who's already solved the hard version of your problem teaches you faster than any curriculum does, and honestly Singapore starts ahead with her strong university ecosystem and community-centric culture, so we're not starting from zero.

Kestone Global: That's the talent side. What about the delivery model? How does H2O.aiactually get these projects into production?

Ambati: Forward deployment. Senior engineers sit physically close to the customer instead of running things remotely from some head office. It's a product decision, not just a staffing one. Spend enough time inside a bank or a hospital and you find the gaps a demo would never show you, and it's closing those gaps, not polishing the pitch deck, that actually matters. What we're after is getting past the demo and into something that produces a return you can measure. We call that the last mile.

Kestone Global: What kinds of local problems is the lab aiming to take on?

Ambati: A few things are on the list. On financial crime, the idea is to build models that catch scams earlier, and to go a step further with AI bots that pretend to be potential victims, tying up a scammer's time and pulling intelligence out of the conversation. We also want to look at robots that can safely help elderly residents, and at predicting lightning strikes near high-rise buildings, both shaped by how dense Singapore is and by its climate, so any model would need guardrails tuned to local conditions rather than a generic template pulled from somewhere else. In healthcare, women's health is underfunded, and that's an area where I'd like to move quickly with local hospitals. More broadly, I think the nearest payoff from AI shows up in science and medicine, where it can cut years off getting to a discovery.

Kestone Global: Where does this mission come from, personally?

Ambati: My mother was diagnosed with cancer, and that's really where it started. I wanted AI pointed at the disease directly, and that turned into something bigger for me: making AI cheap enough, fast enough, easy enough that it becomes ordinary. Like water. If it costs less to run, more people get to experiment with it instead of a handful of well-funded labs deciding what gets built. That's not a slogan we put on a slide, either. It's the reason we've managed to pull in people to work on things like counting endangered species, alongside the paid healthcare work.

Kestone Global: Zooming out, what does the world look like by the end of this decade?

Ambati: I think AI adds more than US$100 trillion to global GDP by 2030 and beyond, and I want human health and longevity to be somewhere in that story with H2O.ai's name on it. The shape of the technology itself is going to change too. Today's large models are dinosaurs, honestly, and better data, including synthetic data, should push things toward small language models that can run on a device rather than a data center. After that, physical AI, robots, is the next big shift, and I'd bet it moves faster and matters more than most people expect. Space exploration too.

Kestone Global: So what's the immediate test, here in Singapore?

Ambati: Whether a small country with real constraints can become a maker of AI instead of just a customer for it. If that works, other countries chasing the same thing get a blueprint they can actually use, one built on co-creating with local partners, on returns you can measure, and on homegrown people, not just a licensed product shipped in from somewhere else.

About H2O.ai

H2O.ai is an artificial intelligence company founded by Sri Ambati, built around a mission to democratize AI by making it faster, cheaper and easier to use. Its platform integrates predictive, generative and agentic AI, and the company works with governments and enterprises worldwide, including through forward deployed labs such as its new Singapore initiative, to co-create localized AI solutions across sectors including finance, healthcare and public safety. H2O.ai's long-term vision centers on "AI for good," applying AI to major scientific, economic and societal challenges, with particular focus on advancing human health and longevity.

Media Contact

Name: Norris Liew
Email: norris.l@kestoneglobal.com
Phone: 96278813

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H2O.ai's Singapore Lab Aims to Turn the Republic From AI User to AI Maker

With the Asian Games underway and less than a month until the Asian Para Games, Toyota highlights how sport can create opportunities, connect communities and move people forward across Asia.

• Seven Global Team Toyota Athletes from six markets have been confirmed to compete across the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games and Asian Para Games
• Toyota Motor Asia continues to champion sport as a key expression of its regional Move Your World brand promise
• Through its support for athletes, communities and initiatives such as Move Your World Beat, Toyota demonstrates how movement can inspire participation, connection and progress in different forms

SINGAPORE, Sept. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- With the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games taking place, and the Asian Para Games to follow in October, Toyota Motor Asia underscores its long-standing commitment to sport and its belief in the power of movement to bring people and communities together.

This year, seven Global Team Toyota Athletes have qualified to represent their respective nations at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games and Asian Para Games. The participating athletes will compete across six sporting disciplines:

• Muhammad Fadli Imamuddin, Indonesia, Para Cycling
• Muhammad Ammar Aiman Nor Azmi, Malaysia, Para Athletics
• Toh Wei Soong, Singapore, Para Swimming
• Carlos Yulo, The Philippines, Gymnastics
• Ernie Gawilan, The Philippines, Para Swimming
• Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Thailand, Badminton
• Lê Văn Công, Vietnam, Para Powerlifting

Their participation represents Toyota Motor Asia's continued partnership with athletes across the region, supporting them not only as they pursue sporting excellence, but also as they inspire others through their journeys on and beyond the field of play.

Sport as a Force That Moves People Forward

Sport has long been an important part of Toyota Motor Asia's Move Your World promise, reflecting the belief that movement is not only about travelling from one place to another, but also about having the opportunity to participate, pursue ambitions and progress.

Across moments of victory and defeat, the journeys of Toyota's athletes reflect this in various ways, from adapting to new sporting pathways and reaching new levels of competition, to inspiring the next generation and creating impact within their communities.

Through its partnerships with athletes and sporting communities, Toyota Motor Asia seeks to support this spirit of progress across the region. Since 2018, Toyota has partnered with more than 20 Global Team Toyota Athletes in Asia, supporting athletes across different markets, abilities and sporting disciplines as they work towards their goals on the international stage.

Toyota Group will also support the Games through a range of mobility solutions, providing more than 1,900 rental vehicles to transport athletes and officials, alongside 15 eco-vehicles and more than 100 small mobility units to support movement across competition venues.

"At Toyota Motor Asia, this belief is central to Move Your World and to our continued partnership with the Global Team Toyota Athletes. As they represent their countries at Aichi-Nagoya 2026, we are proud to stand alongside them, celebrate their journeys and support the communities they inspire," said Preston Tan, Vice President, Toyota Motor Asia.

Moving Through a Shared Beat

Sport is one of the most powerful ways to move people, but the feelings it creates—hope, excitement, belonging and shared pride—can extend beyond the sporting arena. Music carries a similar ability to transcend language, bring together different voices and create shared experiences across communities.

As part of Toyota Motor Asia's regional Move Your World brand platform, Move Your World Beat is a music-led activation that brings together six musicians from across Asia to explore self-expression, connection and collective identity through sound.

Toyota Motor Asia is bringing this idea to life through six original tracks, each created by a different artist using sounds sampled from Toyota vehicles and blending them with the musical influences, instruments and cultural identities of their respective markets. The result is six distinct interpretations of what it means to move, each shaped by a different voice and sense of place.

These individual tracks will ultimately come together in one regional collaboration, bringing different sounds and perspectives into a shared beat. By combining their individual contributions into one composition, Move Your World Beat shows how different voices can retain their distinct identities while contributing to something greater together.

The athletes' journeys demonstrate how sport can create opportunities, challenge perceptions and bring people together—and how movement, in its many different forms, can help move the world forward.

The Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games are taking place from 19 September to 4 October 2026, followed by the Asian Para Games from 18 to 24 October 2026.

About Toyota Motor Asia

Toyota Motor Asia is the regional corporate headquarters and subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, based in both Singapore and Thailand.

Toyota Motor Asia leads and supports the Asia Pacific region in Sales and Marketing activities, Service Parts, Accessories and Customer Services, Product Planning, Production Control & Logistic, and Aftersales thus contributing to the overall development of auto industry and the growing economies in the region.

Toyota envisions the future mobility society to bring freedom of movement to all. Moving forward, Toyota will provide a diverse range of mobility services and transportation solutions to people around the world as we transform Toyota into a mobility company.

About Move Your World

Move Your World is Toyota's regional brand platform across Asia, built on the belief that mobility is more than movement — it is what allows people to participate, to belong and to thrive. Through music, sport and community, Move Your World invites everyone in Asia to look up, to join, and to move the world forward, together.

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Toyota Motor Asia Reaffirms The Power Of Sport As Global Team Toyota Athletes Take Part In Aichi-Nagoya 2026