Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Invests Into R3 Blockchain to Create ‘Experiment Pods’ to Explore AI and DLT

Temasek, Singapore's investment company, is incubating new groups to explore opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies. They are developing experimental pods to focus on these two areas, which it sees as long-term trends influencing multiple industries and nations.

Temasek Holdings Private Limited is a Singaporean holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated in 1974 as a Commercial Investment Company, they own and manage a net portfolio of $308 billion, with S$16 billion divested and S$29 billion invested during the year, and 68% exposure to Asia – 27% Singapore and 41% Asia ex-Singapore. It is an active shareholder and investor, and its investments are guided by four key themes – transforming economies, growing middle-income populations, deepening comparative advantages, and emerging champions. Its portfolio covers a broad spectrum of sectors including financial services, telecommunications, media and technology, transportation and industrials, life sciences and agribusiness, consumer and real estate, energy, and resources, as well as multi-sector funds.

In blockchain, Temasek invested in R3, financed by a group of banks seeking to bring distributed ledger technology to their operations.

“We have been expanding our business coverage and geographic footprint over the past few years. As our operating environment evolves, our focus is on remaining nimble and well-positioned to capture opportunities that deliver sustainable value over the long term”

the Temasek spokesman said.

R3 will use the funds to accelerate technology development and expand strategic partnerships for product deployment. The company’s efforts will be focused on Corda, R3’s DLT platform for regulated financial institutions, and its infrastructure network, which will support a vast range of partner-built financial applications that interoperate seamlessly with each other, existing systems and networks.

David E. Rutter, CEO of R3, comments:

“This investment is unprecedented. Many of the world’s largest financial firms have come together not just with capital support, but with a robust commitment to work with R3 in developing industry solutions that will be the building blocks of the new financial services infrastructure. We’ve got unparalleled momentum.”

Beside their R3 investment, they are also involved in $600 million series C funding round for Chinese AI startup SenseTime.