Because we’re stronger together

Collaborative relationships have always served as a catalyst for HTX’s development of tech innovations that bolster public safety, and this was again highlighted by the recent spate of agreements inked with leading companies around the world.

All these new agreements will help accelerate HTX’s drive to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to supercharge Home Team operations.

At the recently concluded AI TechXplore & Careers@HTX, which took place from 26-27 May, HTX celebrated new partnership agreements with Google, Microsoft, Mistral AI, and Firmus.

And on 30 May, during the France-Singapore Frontier Technologies Forum 2025, HTX and Thales expanded the scope of their partnership and extended it for three years.

Holistic AI empowerment

According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that HTX and Google signed, both parties will explore scientific and technological cooperation in a range of areas, including AI security and cybersecurity research, AI model development, implementation of cloud platform, infrastructure and services, AI-enabled software solutions, as well as AI governance and training.

The agency will also work closely with Google Cloud to explore AI governance models and guardrails for public safety use cases related to Explainable AI, Robust AI and AI safety.

As part of this collaboration, both sides will also explore the development of a GenAI Solution Accelerator for deployment in GDC Air-Gapped, and the deployment of Google’s AI models on Vertex AI for agentic AI, robotics and embodied AI.

In fact, these solutions that HTX and Google DeepMind co-develop could eventually be adopted by public safety agencies around the world, thus helping save lives and make the world a safer place.

Talk about making a global impact.

Going big on Gen AI

Since launching its AI movement on 1 June 2024, HTX has been busy developing Generative AI models and platforms as they can be particularly effective in boosting efficiency by automating tasks and generating insights for Home Team officers.

HTX’s efforts in this area will be given a major boost with the new contract it signed with Microsoft and Mistral AI.

According to the contract signed by the three parties, Microsoft will work with HTX to fine-tune Phi-4-multimodal, a Small Language Model (SLM) for Home Team use cases. HTX will also work with Microsoft on integrating SLM training frameworks into HTX’s AI platform and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Mistral AI, a leading expert in Large Language Models (LLMs), will help HTX fine-tune LLMs for Home Team use cases, as well as lend its expertise in LLM training. This training is significant for HTX as having the capability to train LLMs from scratch as well as to manage their deployment and orchestration will establish the agency as a leader in AI.

Only a few organisations in Singapore have managed to build their own LLM from the ground up.

In addition, Mistral AI will work with HTX to build Phoenix – the Home Team’s very own series of LLMs.

What’s notable is the fact that Phoenix is pre-trained on massive corpuses of knowledge specific and relevant to the Home Team and Singapore. What this means is that Home Team officers will get more accurate responses compared to other kinds of LLMs.

Phoenix, which marks a significant step forward in establishing sovereign AI capabilities within the Home Team, will be progressively deployed as an AI chatbot accessible to Home Team officers, and as an API for AI developers to build operational applications.

Here’s a fun fact – Phoenix has also been trained in 10 major languages spoken in Singapore, including Mandarin, Bahasa Melayu, and Tamil!

Because sustainability matters

Sustaining our AI ambitions is no simple feat. Besides cutting-edge software, there’s also a need for hardware and solutions to reduce carbon emissions.

To this end, HTX has collaborated with Firmus Technologies in advanced AI infrastructure design and research. According to the MoU, both sides will conduct joint research into liquid-cooled AI infrastructure to drive sustainable computing.

Compared to air cooling, liquid cooling boasts better energy efficiency and performance. What does this mean? Lower electricity bills and a smaller environmental impact.

HTX and Firmus Technologies will also explore design principles and technologies for next-generation AI factories, with the ultimate aim of uplifting Singapore’s sovereign capability in mission-critical compute, particularly for public safety and emergency response systems.

A continuation of success

HTX and French multinational aerospace and defence corporation Thales have been collaborating since 2020 when they first signed a Master Agreement for Strategic Partnership for Innovation.

On 30 May, during the France-Singapore Frontier Technologies Forum 2025, HTX and Thales expanded the scope of the successful partnership and extended it for another three years.

This renewed partnership will see both sides work on local capability development, the formation of best practices for trustworthy AI within the Singapore context, and the establishment of a joint-lab focused on AI-enabled technologies.

The partnership will also see Thales provide support to HTX in terms of translating early-stage technical solutions into concrete systems that can be integrated into HTX’s programmes, and the two parties will co-develop a Research and Development (R&D) strategy and future technology roadmap relevant to public safety.

That same day, HTX also extended its partnership ties with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the French national centre for scientific research, which is the largest governmental research organisation in France and the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.

According to the signed agreement, HTX and CNRS will strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of science and technology innovation for public safety and align their objectives to support long-term mutual development and success. This will include facilitating foundational and translational research collaborations and talent exchanges in areas relating to public safety – particularly within the Digital, Engineering and Science domains.

HTX had earlier in February 2025 signed a research agreement with CNRS@CREATE – CNRS’s Singapore subsidiary – that would improve HTX’s ability to better predict and respond to potential threats such as chemical accidents with the use of AI.