Zero Gravity to set up Singapore headquarters with S$20m

Zero Gravity will establish its global headquarters in Singapore and invest S$20 million over five years, expanding the AI infrastructure company's presence in a market it sees as a base for research and operations.

Of the total, S$10 million will go towards setting up the headquarters, building local operations, expanding the team and developing its network in Singapore. Another S$5 million has been allocated to an existing research collaboration with Nanyang Technological University, with a further S$4 million planned for other academic research partnerships. The company has also committed S$1 million to AI and badminton research with NTU and YB Badminton Academy.

The announcement comes as Zero Gravity deepens its work in Singapore, where it has already opened its first physical office worldwide and is recruiting locally. The company, also known as 0G, focuses on decentralised AI and related infrastructure.

Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and Health Tan Kiat How spoke at the company's Singapore developer event, which drew nearly 3,000 registered participants from the developer, research, business and technology communities.

"We are building an ecosystem where innovation, trust and talent are at the centre of our vibrant AI community, and I believe that Singapore provides a useful place for these innovations to happen," said Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and Health, Singapore.

"Deploy in Singapore, adapt it here, scale from here - and know that something made in Singapore is something that can be trusted," Tan said.

Research push

A significant part of the investment will go into university research. Zero Gravity and NTU have formalised the next phase of an existing four-year collaboration established in 2025, extending work on decentralised and blockchain-based AI into sports applications, beginning with badminton.

Research to date has included work on decentralised AI training, model alignment and verifiable AI systems. According to Zero Gravity, researchers from the company and NTU have had three collaborative papers accepted at NeurIPS and one at ICML.

Under the badminton research programme, Zero Gravity will work with NTU and YB Badminton Academy to explore a foundation model for the sport. The aim is to combine player, movement, video, training and competition data to improve analysis of the game.

The project will examine whether AI can help coaches identify movements that are hard to detect visually, track technique and physical load, and flag possible injury risks earlier. The longer-term aim is to support not only elite athletes but also younger players and coaches.

Michael Heinrich, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Zero Gravity, linked the work to the company's wider strategy in Singapore.

"Our commitment to Singapore is not simply about opening an office. It is about research, talent, innovation and long-term investment," said Michael Heinrich, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Zero Gravity.

"We see Singapore not as a final destination, but really as a launchpad for the rest of the world," Heinrich said.

He also addressed the sports research directly.

"Badminton brings together frontier AI research, real-world data and a very human outcome: helping people perform better and stay healthier over time," Heinrich said.

"If we can develop something meaningful here in Singapore, the potential goes far beyond Singapore, and becomes another example of something we build in Singapore and take to the world," he said.

Wider sports link

Beyond the research programme, Zero Gravity's Singapore unit has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding with YB Events and Sports for Project New Frontiers: Bringing Badminton to New Horizons. Under the partnership, the company has committed S$265,000 a year for three years to support youth badminton development, international competition, and work on AI and other technologies in sport.

The plans include widening access to badminton for students from neighbourhood schools and helping develop international youth competition in Singapore. The aim is to create a path from advanced AI research to sporting use cases and broader community participation.

Products and access

At the same event, Zero Gravity presented products including 0G Private Computer, which it said is designed to keep sensitive AI workloads private and verifiable, including from the company itself. It also introduced BestCEO, which it described as an AI product for businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises, that do not want to build their own systems from scratch.

Heinrich framed those products around trust in AI systems as they are adopted more widely by companies and institutions.

"Ultimately, technology matters when it solves real problems," he said.

Community work

The company has also begun community outreach in Singapore. At its first local AI workshop, 70 residents, including many seniors, took part in a two-day programme where they learned about AI and built websites and applications on Zero Gravity's platform.

One participant created a site intended to help people understand age-related health screenings, including reminders for women about mammograms. Heinrich said access to AI should not be limited to companies and researchers.

"But making AI accessible also means going beyond businesses and researchers," he said.

"Because our seniors should not be left behind in the AI revolution. They should have the opportunity to participate," Heinrich said.

The company's new Singapore office is at Stamford Place, in a building that previously housed the National Heritage Board. Heinrich linked the setting to the company's plans for regional and global growth.

"We are a company building infrastructure for the future from a place that carries a piece of Singapore's past," he said.