Few expected the fiercest battleground for Chinese robotics companies to be not Shenzhen, not Shanghai, but Singapore.

So far, according to publicly released official information, 19 robotics companies have established a presence in Singapore, with many more doing so quietly and without disclosure.

Many of these companies generate less than 1% of their total revenue in Singapore. So why are they still rushing in? What truth about going global is hidden behind the scramble?

Going Global Through Singapore

Singapore’s Punggol Digital District is a key hub in the city-state’s push to build up its local AI and robotics industries.

“On the popular floors here, rents are 30% to 40% higher than nearby areas, but they’re all reserved. They’re very hard to get,” a leasing agent in Punggol Digital District said.

“Wanxiang, WeRide and several other robotics companies have moved in here. Zhiyuan is also said to be coming,” the agent said. “It looks like four more are in preliminary talks. Eventually, Chinese robotics companies could make up 40% of this park.”

Beyond Punggol, Geek+ has an office in Tampines, Hai Robotics is on Braddell Road, Fourier Intelligence is in the Marina Bay Financial District, and Leju Robotics has space on Merchant Road in the Royal Group Building.

The agent said: “We expect eight to 10 Chinese robotics companies to move in this year, and the recent rent increases are also tied to the clustering.” But is this wave really about market expansion?

So far, according to officially released information, 19 robotics companies have established a presence in Singapore.

Four have gone to Singapore to do business, five have set up overseas headquarters or branches, five have received investment from Singaporean capital, and five have entered exclusive agency or strategic partnerships. (See table.) Among them, Zhiyuan Robotics is by far the most high-profile, most visible and most active Chinese robotics company in Singapore.

Last October, Zhiyuan made a high-profile move to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, explicitly positioning the city-state as its Asia-Pacific hub for Southeast Asia.

In March this year, Zhiyuan formally signed a partnership with the CEO of Singtel. Why is everyone so eager to be in Singapore?

The Truth Behind Going Global

Robotics companies’ official line is that they are expanding into global markets.

Take Unitree Robotics, which is racing toward an IPO. Its prospectus states clearly that in the first three quarters of 2025, revenue from its Singapore distributor was 8.99 million yuan.

Unitree’s total revenue over the same period was 1.167 billion yuan, meaning its Singapore business line accounted for less than 1% of total revenue.

Even so, the company is still determined to dig in there. The real reasons are not so simple. Their potential goals mainly fall into three categories:

First, to gain access to the latest chips and computing power. For now, the main players in the robotics race are still China and the United States.

The U.S. has imposed strict export controls on high-performance chips to China.

Chinese companies simply cannot get access to the newest U.S. computing power. But as a U.S. treaty ally, Singapore can still legally import most advanced chips.

Many Chinese companies hope to use independent entities set up in Singapore to obtain chips more smoothly.

Second, to use Singapore as a springboard to sell robots globally. Today’s Chinese robots are unlikely to sell easily into the EU or the U.S.

But by setting up a company in Singapore, they can dilute the “Chinese brand” label and prepare for later global sales.

Third, they can tap global capital. On January 2, 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Outbound Investment Security Program formally took effect. In simple terms, the U.S. government began reviewing domestic capital flowing into Chinese AI and robotics projects. Any Silicon Valley dollar fund that wants to invest in a Chinese company has to pass a review.

Singapore, by contrast, is seamlessly connected to the global financial system.

On Singaporean soil, Chinese robotics companies can raise money globally and may even try for a future listing on Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange.

By placing a parent company or independent entity in Singapore, they can use it as a springboard to keep accessing international capital and buying high-end computing power. That is the calculation many are making.

The industry calls this playbook “Singapore washing.”

In June 2025, AI agent company Manus went even further, moving its headquarters directly to Singapore and then cutting nearly two-thirds of its China-based team.

On the surface, a change of corporate identity seems enough to get around the chip and capital constraints. But is the money really that easy to get?

Changing the Shell Is No Longer So Easy

The facts show that a Singapore business license cannot buy real security.

Regulators in China, the U.S. and Singapore are all narrowing the room for “going global by changing shells.” China is policing the source of technology exports.

In April 2025, AI agent company Manus raised $75 million in Series B funding, then moved its headquarters to Singapore in July.

On December 30, Meta announced it would acquire Manus for more than $2 billion, and the transaction moved quickly at the Singapore entity level.

Xiao Hong said bluntly in an internal letter: “If we had not moved to Singapore, Meta would not have acquired us.”

But on January 8, 2026, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Commerce said publicly that it would assess and investigate whether the acquisition complied with laws and regulations on technology imports and exports, outbound investment and related areas.

Put plainly, a company can move, but if the technology grew out of China, the source can still be traced. Building core technology at home and then transforming into an overseas company is not a viable route.

Singapore, for its part, does not want to become a laundering ground for Chinese companies.

On April 4, 2025, Singapore Customs and the Ministry of Trade and Industry issued a joint notice explicitly warning companies not to use Singapore to circumvent other countries’ export controls.

On December 12, Singapore signed the Pax Silica Declaration, which includes AI supply chain standards and excludes China.

On December 21, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said publicly that Singapore would never tolerate being used as a transshipment point for controlled technologies. He even stated directly that Singapore would move in step with the U.S. on chips and set up dedicated mechanisms to ensure high-end chips do not flow to China.

Singapore wants to be a technology hub, not a gray-zone transit warehouse. In the U.S., another hidden clock is ticking.

The U.S. Commerce Department has a “50% ownership look-through rule.” In simple terms, if a Chinese parent company is on a sanctions or screening list, any overseas subsidiary in which it holds more than 50% must face the same export controls.

The rule was suspended for one year in 2025, with the grace period expiring on November 9, 2026.

At that point, chip procurement and technology partnerships conducted under a Singapore subsidiary will still be blocked if the parent company is on the list.

Three locks are tightening at once.

China is policing the source, Singapore refuses to serve as a springboard, and the U.S. is tracing ownership chains downward. The simple “shell game” is becoming harder and harder to play.

Some companies have had to start operating independently across the two systems. Fourier Intelligence, for example, has kept its manufacturing base in Shanghai while building a fully independent overseas business unit in Singapore.

This approach is extremely costly, but it is one of the few paths currently available for using Singapore’s unique advantages in a compliant way.

In this laundering game, no one is naive. To stay, companies have to prove they are valuable.

Singapore wants to keep genuinely strong robotics companies that can help solve its high labor-cost problem.

In 2023, Singapore ranked second globally in robot density, with 770 industrial robots for every 10,000 workers.

Labor is expensive in Singapore, so even today’s still-costly robots can be cheaper than hiring a person.

That gives Singapore a natural environment for real-world robotics deployment. Instead of going there to be “washed,” companies would be better off going there to be tested.