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Last updated on November 24, 2025
Oliver Jay, Managing Director of OpenAI International reveals the company’s global expansion strategy and what’s driving rapid AI adoption across the APAC region.
Oliver knows a thing or two about scaling global companies. Previously holding leadership roles at Asana and Dropbox, where he oversaw expansion across APAC and Latin America, he’s now based in Singapore, steering OpenAI’s international growth.
ChatGPT adoption in APAC is growing rapidly, and the region now has more active users than anywhere else in the world. As part of the Global AI Founder Playbook, published in partnership with The Singapore Economic Development Board, Oliver uncovers what’s driving this shift, and why is building in the region more important than ever.
ChatGPT Usage Skyrockets in Asia-Pacific
Over the past year, the number of people in APAC using ChatGPT each week has grown more than fourfold.
“It’s been incredible to watch how quickly AI is taking off,” Oliver says. “The level of optimism and creativity across so many different industries is something unique about the region. APAC is adopting AI, and showing what broad, real-world impact looks like.”
What’s driving this adoption? People have tried and tested ChatGPT in their personal lives, got comfortable with it, and incorporated it into work. “ChatGPT is the easiest and quickest way to tap into powerful tools, and for companies that want something more tailored, our APIs give them that flexibility,” Oliver explains.
OpenAI is leveraging Singapore’s position as a gateway to the region, and is deepening collaboration with government agencies, businesses and civil society to ensure AI delivers broad benefits across markets.
OpenAI Business Adoption in APAC is Moving Fast
The shift from experimentation to deployment is happening quickly. Grab is using OpenAI’s models to improve accessibility for the visually impaired. Singapore Airlines is enhancing the travel experience with AI-powered assistance. CNA, the Singapore-based global news network, is transforming their newsroom with ChatGPT Enterprise.
“We are already seeing many organisations moving beyond experiments to actual deployment and department-wide adoption,” Oliver says.
Countries that invest in compute, develop talent, and encourage early adoption are likely to get the most benefit from AI. As Oliver suggests, “infrastructure is destiny,” and Singapore is a leading example of how this works in practice.
OpenAI’s Business Model: A Distributed Approach
From Singapore, OpenAI has established a regional hub with offices in Tokyo, Seoul, and expansion planned for New Delhi and Sydney.
“We have an ecosystem where the government, enterprises, and startups are moving in sync. More than 50 AI centres of excellence have been set up here,” Oliver explains.
The city-state offers diverse, multilingual users, regulators who are open to engaging with industry, and access to some of the fastest growing economies. Crucially, public agencies are also stepping up as early adopters, with OpenAI signing agreements with the Singapore Tourism Board and Synapxe.
“When public and private players move together, it sends a strong signal of confidence. It attracts talent, lowers barriers for founders, and creates platforms where new companies can scale,” Oliver says.
Running operations across multiple regional hubs presents challenges.
OpenAI’s distributed model approach, leveraging frontier research in the US as well as APAC’s pro-innovation culture, allows them to get closer to customers, understand their needs on the ground, and support them directly in how they want to use the technology.
Growth Strategy Advice for Founders
“The biggest thing founders should keep in mind is that real breakthroughs in AI aren’t going to come from any one company. They’ll come from collaboration,” Oliver says. “You’ll see founders bringing fresh ideas, governments building the right platforms, and larger companies helping ideas scale. Progress depends on all those pieces working together.”
For founders, this means creating space for teams to use AI day to day, not just in one department, and across functions. Make adoption simple, scale the use cases that are working and don’t wait around.
“The pace of innovation is moving so fast that a wait-and-see approach could leave you behind,” he warns.
Oliver points to the importance of execution: “Having grown companies across regions before joining OpenAI, I’d also add this: execution matters as much as vision. It’s not just about building great technology, but also making sure customers can actually use it, benefit from it, and trust it. That’s what drives lasting impact.”
Click here to discover more expansion strategies in the Global AI Founder Playbook
