Singapore's gic smells big AI event for India

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Singapore’s Gic considers AI event for India as ‘raw ingredients’ is in place in Singapore Gic Cio Bryan Yeo. Summary Singapore Gic’s Cio Bryan Yeo calls AI ‘Fundamental’ for its long -term strategy, with India appearing as an important focal point. Gic, supported by strong technical talent and rising digitization, invests GIC in AI assemblers and scale Indian startups through his Global Bridge Forum. While the world is scrambling to navigate the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI), Gic, who runs the foreign reserves of Singapore, is a few steps ahead. This has already made AI a nuclear pillar of his long -term investment strategy. In this journey, India stands out as an important growth car, backed by its deep talent pool, accelerated digitalization and early acceptance of AI in sectors such as healthcare, finance and infrastructure. In an exclusive interview with Mint, Gic’s chief investment officer Bryan Yeo has insights on the firm’s AI investment thesis, the role of his flagship bridge forum, a platform connecting AI artups to global corporations, and how it also uses AI internally to improve investment decisions. Modified excerpts: In the midst of the prevailing geopolitical uncertainty, especially around the US Indian trade ties, how does Gic position himself in India, especially in AI-related investments? We certainly recognize the rising geopolitical and structural uncertainties worldwide, including around US Indian technology and trading relationships. However, we are not too concerned about volatility in the short term. At Gic we take a long -term, thematic approach to investment. Artificial intelligence is not only transformational, but a foundation: a multi-decade theme. Read more: Undeveloped by new players, Gic is picking up again to regain the market share. Our focus remains on lasting occasions like AI, where we see a significant value creation, especially in a growing economy such as India. Although geopolitical risks are taken into account in our underwriting, they do not change our core thesis. Diversification is an important part of our strategy to ensure the resilience of portfolios, and India is still an important geography for us. Can you elaborate on how Gic AI investments in India approach? Where do you see the most immediate occasions? Our framework divides the AI value chain into three categories: enablers, monetizers and employees. Activators include companies that build the infrastructure needed for AI, such as data centers and semiconductors. Monetizers are startups that develop AI native products and services. Employers are large companies that integrate AI into their operations to drive productivity and transformation. At present, we are deeply invested in enabled stellar around the world, including global partnerships in data infrastructure. But in India, we are mostly invested in employees through large and mid-CAP-listed technical enterprises, as well as industrial and financial enterprises. We take a bottom-up approach with all our investments. Although there is no dedicated fund for AI investments in India, we are invested in different layers of the Indian AI ecosystem through public and private equity. The Bridge Forum is GIC’s flagship initiative to promote synergies between AI artups and major global companies. What role does the bridge forum play to support your AI strategy in India? The Bridge Forum is GIC’s flagship initiative to promote synergies between AI artups and major global companies. It is held bi-annually in Silicon Valley-the last issue was in May 2025 and we made more than 500 compound introductions between founders and 250+ C suite leaders from 20 countries. In 2023 we brought the bridge forum to India for the first time. It was a CTO-focused edition, with participation of leading Indian startups such as Flipkart, Razorpay, Zepto, Postman and Global Players such as Microsoft, Snowflake, DataBricks and Stripe. We will be hosting the next India issue in Mumbai later this year, where we aim to connect Indian technical founders with CIOs and CTOs of multinational corporations. The goal is to help Indian Startups scale by selling in the global markets, while enabling MNCs to adopt the latest AI technologies-which create commercial value for all parties, including GIC. India is still behind the US and China in AI innovation. What is your view on this gap, and how can India catch up? I see it as a journey. India, compared to the US, is behind in terms of maturity of the startup ecosystem and growth. However, we are very optimistic about India’s long -term potential. The growth of the ecosystem is supported by the large pool of strong engineering talent, a fast -growing digital economy and a supportive regulatory environment that India has. We rent a lot of fresh graduates in our Indian offices and see the technical abilities firsthand. While the AI uptart ecosystem is still underway, we believe that the raw ingredients are in place. Our approach is to deploy patient capital and support, which has been tested, commercially viable startups as it scale. The Indiaai mission and similar government initiatives can provide strong pressure for developing AI adoption and digital infrastructure. What is your view on India’s government initiatives, such as the Indiaai mission? Affects state partnerships GIC’s investment focus? The Indiaai mission and similar government initiatives can provide strong pressure for developing AI adoption and digital infrastructure. Projects supported by the government can provide ratification for how good a product or service is, as they need certain markets to launch and grow. However, Gic’s focus remains on cases of commercial use. What is important to us is whether a business has a solid business model, strong management and scalable technology. You have spoken that digitalization is an important driver. How important is this to your Indian portfolio? Digitalization is an important value creator, especially in the financial sector, where we were long-term investors. GIC’s exposure to financial services in India is about $ 20 billion – this includes banks, NBFCs and insurance companies in public and private markets. We have been invested here since the early 1990s. AI is now an important enabler in the digitalization of financial activities – from customers on board and creditworthiness to detection of fraud and operational efficiency. Read more: Exclusive: Greenko Founder Buy Orix Corp. ‘20% in Greenko Energy for $ 1.4 billion, the announcement on Monday we also see a strong potential for AI adoption in healthcare -in medical image analysis, medicine development and clinical safety testing. In supply chains and manufacturing, AI is used for forecasting route, quality control and process optimization. GIC is actively invested in Indian infrastructure, real estate, IT services and manufacturing. AI adoption in these sectors will only accelerate and open new investment opportunities. How does Gic Ai use internally? We undergo a perennial transformation to become an AI organization ourselves. One striking project is the member of the Virtual Investment Committee (IC) – a platform that investment memos take, analyze it within an hour and generate reports with questions, risk flags and booking assignments. This tool is already used by our real estate and fixed income teams, and it uses dozens of transaction data to simulate IC discussions and identify the blind spots. We are now developing a diverse Ai-Personas to further improve a risk manager to improve decision-making. This kind of internal adoption helps us improve efficiency and analytical accuracy. It is not about replacing people, but to increase our abilities with intelligent, agent instruments. And finally, given the AI-driven disruptions, how do you think companies, including those in India, should prepare? We consider AI as an opportunity and a risk. It will create tremendous value, but will also disrupt traditional business models. Companies that embrace AI will probably gain a significant competitive advantage, while those who are resistant can be left behind. In India, businesses in sectors – from finance to pharmaceutical – must invest proactively in AI adoption. At Gic, we will continue to support businesses that position themselves to thrive in this new environment. Read more: The ghost of AI faces Indian IT in the face catches all the corporate news and updates on live mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates and live business news. More Topics #Interview Read the following story