[1][5] Headquartered at Orchard Road, Singapore, it has 13 offices in 9 countries around the world, including in Beijing, Brussels, Hanoi, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, New York City, Paris, San Francisco, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Washington D.C.[6] It is an active shareholder and investor, with four key structural trends guiding its long term portfolio construction—Digitisation, Sustainable Living, Future of Consumption, and Longer Lifespans.

Its key focus investment areas include Consumer, Media & Technology, Life Sciences & Agri-Food, and Non-Bank Financial Services.

Like any other commercial company, Temasek pays taxes that contributes to government revenue in the countries it operates in, distributes dividends to its shareholder and has its own board of directors and a professional management team.

[20] In a 2009 speech,[21] Ho Ching, then Temasek Holdings' Executive Director and CEO, said that the company had made an effort to instill discipline and professionalism, and to be tested and measured by providing public markers of performance.

[26] During the first ten years after independence, the government acquired or established several companies, such as the Keppel Corporation (originally Keppel Shipyard, taken over from the Royal Navy after the British military withdrawal from Singapore), ST Engineering (originally a weapon manufacturer set up to supply the Singapore Armed Forces), and the shipping company Neptune Orient Lines.

[29] In February 2020, Temasek announced a company-wide wage freeze and voluntary pay cuts for senior management in part to help fund community programs aimed at alleviating the impact of COVID-19.

[31] Temasek's initial portfolio of S$354 million comprised shares previously held by the Singapore Government, including a bird park, a hotel, a shoemaker, a detergent producer, naval yards converted into a ship repair business, a start-up airline, and an iron and steel mill.

[32] Temasek's 2006 acquisition of Shin Corporation, owned by the family of then Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was particularly controversial, with protestors burning effigies of Lee and Ho on the streets of Bangkok.

The investment company was selected in recognition of the value that it would add through its deep insights and connections in Asian growth and other emerging markets, according to the Danish engineering firm.

[41] According to people familiar with the matter, Temasek was one of several players that bought the money manager's shares when PNC Financial Services Group Inc. sold a US$14 billion stake earlier in the year.

[53] In June 2024, Temasek was finalizing its sale of some assets from liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading company Pavilion Energy to Shell, with the deal worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.

The firm has publicly stated that its goal is to reduce the net carbon emissions attributed to its entire portfolio to half of 2010 levels by 2030.