3 Before 9

OpenAI has hired Kiran Mani, the chief executive of Indian streaming giant JioStar, to serve as its first-ever managing director for Asia-Pacific. Mani will relocate to OpenAI’s Singapore office in June and report directly to Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon. His mandate spans enterprise adoption, government engagement, developer ecosystem growth, and regional partnerships across the continent. Mani brings over 13 years at Google where he ran Android and Google Play across APAC and Japan, plus stints at Microsoft and IBM scaling consumer tech platforms internationally. The newly created role signals that OpenAI is done treating Asia as an afterthought - with competition from domestic players intensifying across China, India, and Southeast Asia, the ChatGPT maker is planting a flag where growth is fastest.

The Boao Forum for Asia released its flagship Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress report for 2026, declaring that the region is shifting from “AI follower to AI frontrunner” with full-chain industrial maturity spanning chips, models, applications and governance. The report highlights China’s lead in real-world AI deployment, Japan and South Korea’s strengths in manufacturing AI, and Singapore’s emergence as a governance innovation hub and regional platform connector. The forum envisions Asia building a “multi-node, interconnected and collaborative” AI innovation network to amplify its influence across the global value chain.

SuperAI, Asia’s largest AI conference, returns to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on June 10–11 with confirmed participation from OpenAI, Google, AWS, Arm, Red Hat, and Snowflake among others. The third annual event expects to draw over 10,000 attendees, 1,500 AI companies, 100+ exhibitors, and 150+ speakers from more than 150 countries. The conference agenda is built around six pillars: Robotics & Embodied AI, Frontier Models, AI Infrastructure, AI in Finance, BioTech & HealthTech, and AI’s Global Impact. Organisers are positioning Singapore as “neutral ground” where Eastern and Western AI ecosystems can collaborate as geopolitical tensions around AI technology intensify.