Yoevan Khemlani had already begun building his AI company in Singapore when he realized that all his customers were looking somewhere else.
Khemlani had started Interfaze, a startup offering a specialized AI model for backend tasks like web scraping, with a team of four in 2025. “As we were training the model, a lot of our customers who were exploring or trying the product were moving to the U.S., already based in the U.S. or selling to the U.S.,” Khemlani tells Fortune.
And so Khemlani moved to the San Francisco Bay Area last May, drawn by the U.S.’s huge customer base. “We saw the market was there and decided to move,” he says.
Asia once drew tech founders with its underpenetrated markets, lower costs, and rising wealth. Several cities, like Singapore, Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur, tried to position themselves as up-and-coming tech hubs, potentially challenging San Francisco’s longtime dominance in tech.
But founders are now taking a second look at the U.S., both pulled by its massive market and easy access to capital, and pushed by regulatory scrutiny and fragmented markets in Asia.
Since 2025, global venture capital firm Antler has helped more than 30 Asian founding teams relocate to the U.S.
“Most of the founders we see in Asia these days want to build global businesses, and the attraction of being in the U.S. is unmistakable for that purpose,” Jussi Salovaara, Antler’s co-founder and managing partner of Asia, told Fortune. “Customers, talent and capital are all found in abundance there.”
The U.S. attracted roughly 68% of all startup funding last year, according to KPMG. Asia only attracted 12% over the same period. The difference is even starker in the first quarter of 2026, with the U.S. winning 80% of all startup funding, due to massive fundraising rounds for developers like OpenAI and Anthropic. Asia’s share dropped to 9.6% (even if funds were stable in absolute terms).
Push and pull
Asia’s, and particularly Southeast Asia’s, venture capital space is in a protracted slump. Venture funding to Southeast Asian tech firms fell by almost 80% between 2022 and 2024, from approximately $10.1 billion to $2.2 billion. The region currently accounts for roughly 0.5% to 2% of global VC investment; most APAC investment is concentrated in India and China.
The region also hasn’t offered lucrative exit opportunities for investors. “There’s been some large IPOs in Southeast Asia, but not as many as the ecosystem needed,” explains Salovaara. “That’s definitely impacting investor confidence.”
Southeast Asian IPOs raised $6.5 billion last year, a 76% jump, according to Deloitte. That’s still a sliver compared to IPO proceeds in the Chinese city of Hong Kong, at $37 billion.
Several Southeast Asian companies are trading below their offer price. JustCo, a Singaporean flexible work company, is already trading below the IPO price just weeks after its June debut. Foundation Healthcare, the first healthcare business to list on the Singapore Exchange in four years, also closed 7.9% below IPO price on its first day of trading on July 8.
In addition, Southeast Asia is actually a collection of several very different markets, meaning firms can’t rely on a single blueprint for the region. “When you invest in the U.S., you’re investing in the whole country, which is a huge market,” says Khemlani. “But when you invest in Southeast Asia, you have to pick which country you want to invest in. The go-to-market strategy in each Southeast Asian nation is very different.”
And though more capital is flowing into China and India, companies there still face less patient private capital, stricter listing requirements and lower valuation multiples than their U.S. counterparts.
For IndustrialMind.AI founder Justin Li, unfavorable market conditions back home was a push factor to move to the U.S. “B2B start-ups don’t have the best market access in China, as we’re mostly able to serve only Chinese customers and the local market.”
Li, an ex-Tesla engineer, built an AI engineer that can monitor production lines to detect anomalies and suggest fixes. Most of his customers are auto manufacturers from the U.S. and Europe.
Geopolitics might also be playing a role. Western firms may be uncomfortable with working with a firm based in China, particularly regarding business models that rely on sharing data. Even if executives are comfortable working with a Chinese startup, they’d need to navigate an increasingly complex web of restrictions and politics in both the U.S. and China, particularly as AI begins to be seen more as a strategic technology than just a product.
Others tout Silicon Valley’s vibrant founder community. “These whisper networks aren’t anywhere else,” Sanjil Jain, an Indian founder who relocated to the U.S. in April to build Drift, an AI-powered platform for robotics engineering, says. “You get to meet people, gain access to new technologies, and integrate them into your solution so you can offer something new.”
Jain has hired three Americans to join his team of five since the move. “If we were to look for the same talent in India, it would have taken us a lot of time to sieve out the exact profile or the craziness in a person who would want to build with us,” he says.
“But here, pretty much everyone is crazy about building new technologies.”
When does Asia make sense?
Despite Silicon Valley’s allure, Salovaara stresses that a U.S. relocation isn’t straightforward.
Last September, Trump raised H-1B visa fees from $5,000 to $100,000, sending shockwaves through corporate America. “Being Indian citizens, it’s not easy for us to get visas—we’re looking at year-long waits,” Jain tells Fortune. (Last month, a U.S. federal court blocked the administration’s highly controversial visa fee hike, ruling it an unauthorized tax.)
“What’s also challenging is achieving proper U.S. growth,” Salovaara adds. “Founders need to make some cultural transitions: In Asia, investors are very focused on revenue growth and profitability relatively early, while in the U.S., they pay more attention to your vision and the problem you’re looking to solve.”
He also suggests that some businesses are better suited to Southeast Asian markets, which tend to offer more investment opportunities around infrastructure and energy. He points to one Antler-backed example: Alternō, a Singapore-incorporated Vietnamese startup that has developed low-cost renewable energy storage using sand-based thermal batteries.
“If you’re building in Vietnam, it’s obviously going to be a lot more cost-effective compared to the U.S,” Salovaara says.
Antler’s guiding philosophy is that it should be possible for founders to build successful startups from anywhere in the world. “People can innovate from almost anywhere, and at a level they weren’t able to before,” CEO Magnus Grimeland told Fortune earlier this year. (Antler only opened its first office in Silicon Valley in 2025, eight years after its founding).
Salovaara is hopeful that more Asian founders will opt to build within the region. “In time, capital will become more evenly distributed between the different markets,” he concludes. “As ecosystems mature, they’ll also capture more talent and capital, so I hope we’ll begin to see more founders building from Asia for the world.” (On June 26, Antler announced it would be expanding its focus on China-outbound founders, and adding Japanese and South Korean founders into the mix.)
In the short term, however, Asian hubs still have a long way to go before they can compete with Silicon Valley.
“You can build from anywhere today, be it Singapore or the UK, but from a sales standpoint, it’s difficult to reach a global customer base from those countries,” Khemlani says. “From a venture perspective, it’s also very hard to raise capital in San Francisco if you’re still in Singapore.”
Yoevan Khemlani, the founder of Interfaze, an AI startup specializing in backend tasks like web scraping, made a pivotal decision to relocate from Singapore to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2025. As he built his company, it became evident that his customers were primarily oriented toward the U.S. market, which prompted his move to capitalize on the vast customer base and access to capital that the U.S. offers. Khemlani’s experience reflects a broader trend where tech founders from Asia, especially Southeast Asia, are increasingly looking to the U.S. for growth opportunities.
Historically, Asian cities like Singapore, Tokyo, and Kuala Lumpur have attracted tech entrepreneurs due to their untapped markets, lower operating costs, and rising wealth. However, the landscape has shifted, with founders now drawn back to the U.S. by its large market and abundant investment opportunities. This shift is evident in the statistics: global venture capital firm Antler has assisted over 30 Asian founders in relocating to the U.S. since 2025, indicating a growing desire among Asian entrepreneurs to build global businesses.
In 2022, the U.S. attracted approximately 68% of all startup funding, a stark contrast to Asia’s 12%. This gap widened in 2026, with the U.S. securing 80% of funding in the first quarter alone, driven by significant fundraising rounds for companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. Conversely, Southeast Asia’s venture capital market has faced severe declines, with funding for tech firms plummeting nearly 80% from 2022 to 2024, from $10.1 billion to $2.2 billion.
The challenges in Southeast Asia are compounded by a lack of lucrative exit opportunities for investors. While there were some notable IPOs, the region has not seen enough to instill confidence in investors. For comparison, Southeast Asian IPOs raised $6.5 billion last year, a significant increase, but still minimal compared to Hong Kong’s $37 billion. Furthermore, several Southeast Asian companies have struggled post-IPO, with some trading below their initial offering prices shortly after listing.
The diversity of markets within Southeast Asia also complicates investment strategies. Unlike the U.S., where investors can tap into a single, vast market, Asia comprises various countries, each requiring tailored approaches. Khemlani articulated this challenge, emphasizing the need for distinct go-to-market strategies across different Southeast Asian nations.
Companies in China and India are experiencing increased capital flow, but they confront challenges such as less patient private capital, stricter listing requirements, and lower valuation multiples compared to their U.S. counterparts. For instance, Justin Li, founder of IndustrialMind.AI, moved to the U.S. after facing limited market access for his B2B startup in China. His AI technology, which helps auto manufacturers monitor production lines, has found a more receptive audience in the U.S. and Europe.
Geopolitical considerations also influence this trend. Western firms often hesitate to collaborate with Chinese startups, especially those relying on data sharing, due to complex regulatory landscapes. This hesitation is further heightened as AI becomes increasingly viewed as a strategic technology.
Moreover, the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Silicon Valley offers unique advantages. Founders like Sanjil Jain, who moved to the U.S. to develop an AI-powered robotics platform, highlight the benefits of networking and access to advanced technologies unique to the region. Jain noted the ease of hiring talent in the U.S., contrasting it with the challenges of finding suitable candidates in India.
Despite these attractions, relocating to the U.S. is not without challenges. Visa complexities, such as the recent increase in H-1B visa fees, pose significant hurdles for international founders. Cultural differences in business expectations also present obstacles, as U.S. investors often prioritize vision and problem-solving over immediate revenue growth, which is more common in Asia.
Nevertheless, certain businesses may still find success in Southeast Asia, particularly in sectors like infrastructure and renewable energy. For example, Antler-backed startup Alternō, based in Vietnam, is developing affordable renewable energy solutions that leverage local resources more effectively than in the U.S.
Antler’s philosophy suggests that successful startups can emerge from anywhere, and CEO Magnus Grimeland believes in the potential for Asian ecosystems to mature and attract more capital and talent. There is hope that as these markets develop, more founders will choose to build within Asia while still targeting global markets.
In conclusion, while the allure of Silicon Valley remains strong, especially for tech founders seeking customers, capital, and a vibrant community, the realities of doing business in the U.S. pose challenges that cannot be overlooked. The landscape for startups in Asia is changing, and while the short-term outlook may favor U.S. relocation, the potential for growth in Asian markets remains significant as ecosystems develop and mature.
