Cognition Brings Devin AI Software Engineer to Japan and Singapore as Asia Expansion Accelerates

Cognition, the creator of Devin — billed as the world's first AI software engineer — is opening offices in Japan and Singapore as part of an aggressive push into Asian markets. The Peter Thiel-backed startup, valued at $10.2 billion after raising $400 million, sees Asia's software talent gaps as a natural fit for its autonomous coding agent.

Japan: The Biggest Opportunity

Japan was Devin's number one market at launch, and the country's demographic challenges make it an ideal testbed for AI-assisted software development. Japan could face a shortfall of 790,000 software engineers by 2030, according to government projections — a gap that AI tools like Devin are positioned to help fill.

Co-founder and President Russell Kaplan told Nikkei Asia that Japanese developers are "very sophisticated and forward-leaning on AI tools," suggesting the market is ready for deep integration of autonomous coding agents into enterprise workflows.

Enterprise Adoption

Devin's customer list already includes major global enterprises: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Banco Santander, NASA, and Japanese gaming company DeNA. Teams using Devin report task completion speeds 6 to 12 times faster than manual development.

A particularly striking case study involves ULS Consulting working with Sapporo, where Devin reduced workload from approximately 200 person-months to 50 — a 75% reduction in engineering effort.

Asia-Pacific Strategy

The Singapore office will serve as Cognition's regional hub for Southeast Asia, where demand for software development talent is growing rapidly. The company has also established partnerships with major IT services firms including Infosys and Cognizant, which could help distribute Devin's capabilities across their extensive enterprise client networks in the region.

The expansion reflects a broader trend of AI companies establishing physical presence in Asia, where a combination of talent shortages, technology-forward enterprises, and government support for AI adoption creates favorable market conditions.