Singapore business, finance and trade news, every Monday.
Government Floats SG Semiconductor Brand
A new national brand, SG Semiconductor, was launched on Friday, bringing together chip research, manufacturing, infrastructure and talent as a single package/ pitch to global chipmakers. The government is putting up S$800 million ($618 million) to support Singapore’s first research, innovation and enterprise flagship in semiconductors from now though until 2030. Developed by A*Star and the Economic Development Board, the brand will first promote public-sector R&D in seven areas, from advanced packaging to silicon photonics and flat optics. Trade minister Tan See Leng used the launch to remind industry leaders that the country makes about one in 10 of the world's chips and a fifth of global semiconductor manufacturing equipment. A handful of new and expanded tie-ups with Applied Materials, GlobalFoundries, KLA and Stats ChipPac were also announced, the largest being a five-year Phase 4 expansion of the Applied Materials-A*Star joint lab.
Read more: Business Times, Business Times
Output Up as Headcount Down
Second-quarter output was up 12.5 percent in manufacturing, but (or maybe that should be “and”) the sector shed workers. The output improvement was also seen in wholesale trade (up 8.3 percent), finance and insurance (up 6.2 percent) and infocomm (up 5 percent). Retrenchment found the highest level since the pandemic, as vacancies fell from 76,200 in mid-2025 to 73,300 at end-March and 68,600 today. Financial services postings were down 22.4 percent and infocomm was reduced 17 percent Q-on-Q. Companies pointed to reorganization and restructuring for the job losses, but Maybank economist Chua Hak Bin says its AI, claiming that it is "destroying more jobs than creating [them]" in services. The Manpower Ministry's Ang Boon Heng was a bit more circumspect with "We have not yet established how much AI is contributing to this rise in retrenchments. We are still studying [it]."
Read more: Business Times
MAS Stress-Tests the AI Boom
The Monetary Authority ran the numbers on what happens if the AI boom curdles, and found that a third of SGX-listed firms would be in trouble. That’s a group that holds 16 percent of all corporate debt on the exchange. The test simulated exposure to companies of revenue shocks of up to 30 percent and interest-rate shocks of up to 400 basis points, both calibrated to a firm's estimated exposure to the AI supply chain. The casualties skew toward the highly leveraged and capital-heavy firms that rely on working-capital financing, but smaller companies with thinner margins and slimmer cash buffers also faired less-well. The central bank's Financial Stability Review thinks a reassessment of AI-related asset valuations is the main risk, since current equity prices require sustained revenue growth and sizeable (eventual) profits from data centers and advanced semiconductors.
Read more: Business Times
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Civil Servants' Suspiciously Timed Property Buys
In perhaps a discovery of some measure of clairvoyance, a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper found that mid-level civil servants at rail-connected agencies made 113 property purchases worth S$138 million ($107 million) near future MRT stations between 2007 and 2011. Most of the buys happened one to two years before the stations were publicly announced. Some purchases involved relatives, which the paper helpful said was a pattern “consistent with information leakage.” The Public Service Division is now looking at the records to try and identify which of those buyers worked on rail planning at the time, and says it’ll refer cases to police if it finds any officer used non-public information for personal gain. PSD said the statistical pattern is/ was "a concern" but said it doesn’t by itself prove any individual officer had access to inside information. PSD also said that speculation about planned lines often circulates publicly and is used to market new developments. No cases have been referred so far.
Read more: Business Times
Terminal 5 Labor Gets Population Past 6.2 Million
The population was reported to be 6.21 million in June 2026, up 1.6% for the year, and 70,300 of the 97,300 added residents were non-citizens, most of them work permit holders pouring concrete for Changi's Terminal 5, the Marina Bay Sands expansion and new transport lines. The number of non-residents was up 3.7% to 1.98 million, and the pace of “citizens growth” was a bit slower at 0.7% (to 3.68 million). Singapore also crossed the threshold into “super-aged” territory, with 19.5% of citizens and permanent residents now at least 65 years of age, up from 12.4% a decade ago. The government wants to naturalize up to 30,000 people a year for the next five years to try and offset the aging trend. Last year's citizenship grants were 25,094 people in total.
Read more: Reuters (65+ age trend), Business Times
HDB Reviews Jumbo Flat Scheme
A three-room HDB unit in Telok Blangah, doubled in size by knocking out a wall to the flat next door, was listed for resale this month at S$2.18 million ($1.69 million). HDB says three-room flats in the area sold for S$673,000 to S$771,000 ($522,000 to $599,000) over the past six months, so the combined valuation is closer to S$1.54 million ($1.20 million), more than S$600,000 ($466,000) below the asking price. The owners bought the first unit in December 2017 and the neighboring one in August 2021, under a 1993 deal that allows eligible owners to merge adjacent flats and sell the combined unit after five years. A standard three-room flat is normally about 700 sq ft; this combined unit is 1,465 sq ft and has 91 years left on its lease. No resale application has been filed, and HDB is reviewing the deal.
Read more: Business Times
RSAF Shifts Runways in First Move to Paya Lebar
MINDEF has confirmed that the Republic of Singapore Air Force switched runways at Changi Air Base East on September 17, moving operations from 02R/20L to a new 03/21 strip that is off-limits to civilian traffic. It is the first step toward relocating Paya Lebar Air Base, a plan that was first made public at the 2013 National Day Rally and which is now planned for "2030 and beyond." That relocation will free up about 800 hectares, an area bigger than Bishan or Ang Mo Kio, for homes, offices, factories and parks.
Read more: CNA
Balakrishnan Wants ‘IAEA’ for Algorithms
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told the UN General Assembly that the world needs a framework convention on AI safeguards, and floated a new institution modeled on the IAEA's verification role or the ITU's technical standards. He highlighted three dangers, saying humans could lose control of autonomous systems, rogue actors could use AI to build biological or other weapons of mass destruction, and the technology could cause economic, social and political upheaval. "The genie is already out of the bottle," he said, arguing against a stop to development and in favor of rigorous pre-deployment testing, limits on what autonomous systems can do, and human override(s) when they misbehave. Any deal, he said, must give all countries a meaningful role, and not be shaped only by states with the most advanced models, deepest pockets or biggest militaries.
Read more: CNA (ASEAN chairmanship), AsiaOne (multilateralism speech)
F-35Bs Train 15,000 Kilometers From Home
As reported previously in the Singapore Weekly, twelve of Singapores new F-35Bs are training at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas; the other eight, conventional F-35As, are going to Tengah. The B-model's short takeoff and vertical landing was sold as an answer to a country with few usable runways, especially as military airfields consolidate (see Story above). While no mutual-defense treaty with the United States exists, the jets that were built to battle in a crisis will remain 15,000 kilometers away during peacetime for training purposes. Getting them to Singapore will need transport aircraft, overflight access, and time that a quick strike won’t allow for.
Read more: Defence Security Asia
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