OpenAI says demand for its Codex coding agent is surging across Asia-Pacific, with Singapore now among the product’s five largest markets worldwide.
Thomas Jeng, OpenAI’s APAC head of startups, told The Business Times that Codex adoption in the region has increased roughly 17-fold since its late-2025 rollout phase. “I’ve never seen traction quite like this over the course of my career,” Jeng said, describing a volume of startup inquiries large enough to require constant triage and reprioritization.
The figure should be read as a regional adoption claim rather than a company-wide usage metric. OpenAI originally introduced Codex as a cloud-based software engineering agent in May 2025, expanded it through ChatGPT plans and developer tools, and later shipped a Windows version of the Codex app in March 2026. OpenAI said in June that Codex had surpassed five million weekly active users globally.
Codex is designed to take on discrete engineering work in isolated environments: investigating a codebase, making changes, running tests, answering implementation questions, and proposing pull requests. The Windows app gives developers a desktop interface for coordinating multiple tasks, while the CLI, IDE integrations, cloud agent, and API cover more conventional engineering workflows.
For small development teams, the appeal is straightforward: a coding agent can handle parallel chores such as test fixes, documentation updates, dependency investigations, and prototype work while an engineer reviews the result. That is also why demand is increasingly coming from startups rather than solely large enterprises with established automation budgets.
Jeng told The Business Times that OpenAI is trying to support startups through direct access to current models, technical support, venture-capital partnerships, hackathons, and token credits. The company has reportedly provided more than $30 million in credits to APAC startups. Separately, OpenAI has committed more than US$300 million to Singapore and plans to add over 200 roles in coming years.
On the data question, OpenAI says business-plan and API inputs and outputs are not used for model training by default unless an organization opts in. That policy does not eliminate the need to review retention settings, third-party integrations, repository permissions, and any data sent through consumer-tier accounts.
The immediate consequence is more competition for OpenAI’s Codex capacity and startup support in APAC, while Windows development teams should treat the tool as an accelerant for reviewed workflows rather than an unattended developer.
Thomas Jeng, OpenAI’s APAC head of startups, told The Business Times that Codex adoption in the region has increased roughly 17-fold since its late-2025 rollout phase. “I’ve never seen traction quite like this over the course of my career,” Jeng said, describing a volume of startup inquiries large enough to require constant triage and reprioritization.
The figure should be read as a regional adoption claim rather than a company-wide usage metric. OpenAI originally introduced Codex as a cloud-based software engineering agent in May 2025, expanded it through ChatGPT plans and developer tools, and later shipped a Windows version of the Codex app in March 2026. OpenAI said in June that Codex had surpassed five million weekly active users globally.
Why Windows developers should care
Codex is designed to take on discrete engineering work in isolated environments: investigating a codebase, making changes, running tests, answering implementation questions, and proposing pull requests. The Windows app gives developers a desktop interface for coordinating multiple tasks, while the CLI, IDE integrations, cloud agent, and API cover more conventional engineering workflows.For small development teams, the appeal is straightforward: a coding agent can handle parallel chores such as test fixes, documentation updates, dependency investigations, and prototype work while an engineer reviews the result. That is also why demand is increasingly coming from startups rather than solely large enterprises with established automation budgets.
Jeng told The Business Times that OpenAI is trying to support startups through direct access to current models, technical support, venture-capital partnerships, hackathons, and token credits. The company has reportedly provided more than $30 million in credits to APAC startups. Separately, OpenAI has committed more than US$300 million to Singapore and plans to add over 200 roles in coming years.
The admin caveat
Fast adoption does not remove the usual controls required for agentic coding tools. Codex can act on source trees and, depending on configuration, may use network access or connected services. Teams should still use least-privilege credentials, isolated test environments, mandatory code review, branch protections, dependency scanning, and audit logging before allowing autonomous changes anywhere near production.On the data question, OpenAI says business-plan and API inputs and outputs are not used for model training by default unless an organization opts in. That policy does not eliminate the need to review retention settings, third-party integrations, repository permissions, and any data sent through consumer-tier accounts.
The immediate consequence is more competition for OpenAI’s Codex capacity and startup support in APAC, while Windows development teams should treat the tool as an accelerant for reviewed workflows rather than an unattended developer.
References
- Primary source: TipRanks
Published: 2026-07-20T15:49:48+00:00
- Official source: openai.com
Codex is now generally available | OpenAI
OpenAI Codex is now generally available with powerful new features for developers: a Slack integration, Codex SDK, and admin tools like usage dashboards and workspace management—making Codex easier to use and manage at scale.openai.com - Official source: cdn.openai.com
- Related coverage: businesstimes.com.sg
OpenAI grapples with surging startup demand in Apac even as it expands Singapore team - The Business Times
It will commit more than US$300 million in the Republic, including over 200 roles, in the next few years Read more at The Business Times.www.businesstimes.com.sg
