US artificial intelligence giant OpenAI has begun recruiting staff to “cover clients and communities that are Mandarin-speaking” even though the company has long excluded China – the largest Sinophone market – from its service coverage amid a global race for AI dominance.

The company’s recruitment website said it was looking for Singapore-based developer experience engineers, as well as growth partner managers based in San Francisco, with both roles requiring “Mandarin language skills”.

Industry experts said the job listings underscored the rapid rise of the developer community in the Sinosphere, and its growing engagement in the global AI development scene.

Zhang Ruiwang, a Beijing-based information systems architect, said the Chinese developer community was among the most active globally, making it difficult to overlook.

Li Xiaodong, deputy chairman of the state-affiliated China Internet Association, said China was home to the world’s largest pool of software developers last year, with its 9.4 million developers accounting for one-third of the world’s total.

The OpenAI website said the developer experience engineers in Singapore would be tasked with “creating compelling technical content, developer tools and sample applications” and “engaging with developers and technical founders”.

They would be expected to actively engage with and foster a vibrant global developers ecosystem, OpenAI said, adding specific language skills were required because the role would also cover Mandarin-speaking clients and communities.