The inventor of the handheld vacuum cleaner, Dyson, announced on Friday that it will invest S$1.5 billion ($1.1 billion) in Singapore over the next four years, the latest step in a S$4.9 billion global investment plan.

Dyson said the investment will be split between the company’s global headquarters in Singapore, two campuses in Wiltshire, southern England, and the Philippines when it launched the global investment plan in 2020.

The company opened its new global headquarters at a restored power plant in the Southeast Asian city-state on Friday, where it aims to hire over 250 more engineers and scientists.

The field will cover robotics, machine learning, high-speed electric digital motors, energy storage, and other fields. Dyson’s research and engineering departments, as well as commercial, advanced manufacturing, and supply chain operations, are all based in Singapore. In the country, it works around 1,400 people, including 560 engineers and scientists.

Singapore, a low-tax global commercial hub, has been stepping up its attempts to attract technology and research companies. “This is the future for technology companies – to go wherever talent is available and made welcome,” its prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said at the opening of the headquarters. “It is also the future for Singapore – to welcome companies and talent, which can help make us a hub of new ideas and scientific progress.”

The company, which was founded in the 1990s by British entrepreneur James Dyson, became a household name by inventing sleekly designed devices ranging from hand dryers and air purifiers to hair care appliances and vacuums.

Dyson, a billionaire Brexit supporter, announced plans to move his company’s headquarters to Singapore in 2019 in order to be closer to its fastest-growing markets, causing a reaction in the United Kingdom.

An engineering hub, a motor production facility and a new battery factory are among the company’s other Singapore locations. Dyson has a large manufacturing presence in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia being its second-largest global center.

Source: Reuters