EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

This is part of Singapore ’ s effort to enable the growth of data centres to support the digital economy in a sustainable manner consistent with our climate change commitments . The IMDA will continue to work with the industry to release more capacity in the near term to support emerging needs for Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning ( AI / ML ) compute , and to encourage the deployment of lower-carbon data centres in Singapore .

Quality CFA proposals

After the temporary pause in the growth of data centres was lifted in 2022 , a pilot DC-CFA was launched to facilitate the sustainable building of new data centre capacity . Flexibility was provided for industry to propose innovative approaches that would :

• Bring in state-of-the-art technologies and best practices for sustainability , particularly in the areas of energy efficiency and decarbonisation .

• Strengthen Singapore ’ s international connectivity and position as a regional hub .

• Make a significant contribution to Singapore ’ s broader economic objectives .

There was significant industry interest in this pilot , with more than 20 proposals received . Given the quality of the proposals received , the IMDA has provisionally awarded about 80MW to the following companies :

• AirTrunk-ByteDance ( Consortium )

• Equinix

• GDS

• Microsoft

These four awarded proposals were best able to meet the desired outcomes holistically and had significantly competitive propositions to strengthen Singapore ’ s position as a regional hub and contribute to broader economic objectives .

Key highlights include :

• Delivering best-in-class energy-efficient performance through comprehensive adoption of liquid cooling and energy-efficient core-IT equipment . This includes meeting Green Mark DC Platinum Certification .

• Significantly expanding international connectivity , including through facilitating an increase in submarine cable capacity and setting up new carrier-neutral exchanges .

• Anchoring key compute capacities , including AI / ML compute and High-Performance Compute in Singapore , while linking with offshore data centres to complement Singapore ’ s capacity .

• Significant economic commitments to Singapore beyond the direct data centre investments .

The IMDA appreciate the strong support and active participation of the industry in this pilot DC-CFA exercise . The proposals illustrate the continued confidence and the applicants ’ commitment to innovatively grow the data centre industry in a sustainable manner and strengthen Singapore ’ s value proposition as a key technology hub for the country .

Considerations for future data centres

Given the significant interest , EDB and IMDA will continue to engage industry stakeholders on the next bound . They aim to allocate more capacity in the next 12 – 18 months to advance their interest as an innovative , sustainable , global digital hub .

They remain committed to the sustainable growth of the data centre sector and will develop a roadmap together with the industry towards the development of green data centres with lower carbon emissions in support of Singapore ’ s net zero targets .

With rapid advancements in Generative AI , EDB and IMDA will also engage industry stakeholders in the immediate term on the compute and connectivity infrastructure required to build a competitive AI ecosystem . www . intelligentdatacentres . com

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