Google and Singapore-based investment platform Granite Asia have announced a strategic partnership to co-develop and co-invest in artificial intelligence startups across Asia, committing to put up to $2 million into each selected company — alongside access to Google's AI models and cloud infrastructure.
The programme, announced Tuesday, will run through Granite Asia's Fellows Program, a selective platform for founders building global companies from Asia.
Granite Asia will source the founders, and the two sides will evaluate them jointly — though investments will go through each firm's independent process, on identical economic terms.

What founders get

Beyond the cheques, selected startups will receive up to $350,000 in Gemini and Google Cloud credits, early access to AI models including Gemini, Nano Banana and Lyria, and co-development support from Google's product, research and engineering teams, including Google DeepMind.
Granite Asia brings board-level mentorship, help with market entry and expansion across Asia, and access to its portfolio companies and industry partners.
Founders also keep full choice over their underlying AI technology stack — no lock-in to Google's models is required.

Five target areas

The programme will target five areas: scientific discovery and knowledge, industrial transformation, agentic systems for workplace tasks, generative tools for creators, and interactive, personalised entertainment.

The bet is that Asia's next great AI companies will look different from Silicon Valley's — and the partnership is positioned as a bridge between the region's founders and global AI infrastructure at an early stage.

Why this matters now

Jenny Lee, Granite Asia's senior managing partner, said the next generation of AI companies would be built in Asia and scaled globally, arguing that pairing global AI capabilities with the region's founders closes the gap startups face on compute, models and technical feedback.
Granite Asia manages roughly $11 billion in assets and co-managed capital, has backed more than 120 companies and 70 public listings, and has operated across Asia for over two decades
Google's AI Futures Fund, launched last year, invests in AI companies and offers capital, mentorship and early access to DeepMind models — a formula Google has already deployed with Accel's Atoms AI Cohort for Indian founders.
For Asia's AI builders, the signal is clear: the money is arriving, and the compute comes with it.
By Hamza Faisal