From lab breakthroughs to new businesses: How AI is accelerating innovation in Singapore

“Years ago … access was really beholden to folks only in certain metropolitan cities,” he said. “Now, as easy as AI is, you don’t need a PhD from a world class university in computer science to prompt, to teach, to ask the AI, to teach you how to train it.”

For AI start-ups with small teams and limited funding, Mr Wright advised being strategic about when to secure financing.

However, he cautioned that some startups limit their growth potential by focusing too narrowly on their domestic markets.

“We’ve noticed in different pockets of the world, they’re focused on just servicing that local (area), that city, that state, that government entity,” he said.

“In fact they’ve written code that can traverse boundaries, that could traverse other verticals.”

Mr Wright said Nvidia works with more than 1,000 startups in Singapore, pointing to the country’s engineering talent, universities and access to investment capital as strengths.

“It’s not too ambitious to say maybe the next trillion-dollar market cap startup could come from this very city.”