Singapore, 31 January 2024 – Singtel today debuted its initiative to advance AI development in Singapore and the region, tying up with global and local ecosystem partners across AI, renewable energy, sustainable technologies and talent development. The initiative comes as the company is scaling its regional data centre business, having gained a foothold in new markets beyond Singapore like Indonesia and Thailand where it is building a new generation of green, sustainable and hyper-connected AI-ready data centres.
This was unveiled at the launch of Singtel’s new data centre brand Nxera (pronounced “nex-zeh-ra”), attended by Guest-of-Honour Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Mr Heng Swee Keat. Central to the initiative are four sets of strategic Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) including collaborating with NVIDIA to make AI adoption more accessible in Singapore and across the region; tapping the renewable energy expertise of Gulf Energy, Medco Power, Sembcorp and TNB Renewables to accelerate Nxera’s journey towards net-zero emissions; establishing a co-innovation platform with technology partners to improve power and water efficiency and operational resiliency; and creating a Regional Sustainable Data Centre Academy with five institutes of higher learning to train more than 150 students annually for its data centre business, ecosystem partners and the industry. Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information witnessed the signing of all these MOUs at the event. ;
"The launch of the Nxera data centre brand is a key milestone for our data centre business as we look to expand our footprint in the region beyond 200MW over the next three years. "
Bill Chang,
CEO of Nxera and Singtel's Digital InfraCo
Mr Bill Chang, CEO of Nxera and Singtel's Digital InfraCo unit said, “The launch of the Nxera data centre brand is a key milestone for our data centre business as we look to expand our footprint in the region beyond 200MW over the next three years. As we build out our data centre business, we are putting in place a purpose-driven, fully aligned group of ecosystem partners with distinctive capabilities and unique platforms that will help us grow this digital infrastructure in an AI world – sustainably and responsibly. This means democratising AI access for enterprises, introducing renewable energy and sustainable technologies, and helping produce the talent for our new generation of data centres.”
He added, “Digitalisation shouldn’t come at the expense of our decarbonisation efforts. In fact, it should accelerate our efforts. Given our aim to achieve operational net-zero emissions for our data centre business by 2028, these partnerships are critical to laying the groundwork for turning digitalisation into a driver for decarbonisation. Of course, we are also doing our utmost to support the Singapore government’s recently announced National AI Strategy 2.0 and green ICT agenda.”
Singtel's Key Initiatives:
Supporting national and regional AI development
Singtel’s Digital InfraCo unit and NVIDIA will collaborate on opportunities to support Singapore's updated National AI Strategy 2.0 to drive innovation and create new value through AI. In becoming an NVIDIA cloud partner in the region, Singtel will democratise AI access for enterprises, large and small, to NVIDIA GPU clusters hosted in Nxera’s AI DC platform in the region. Customers can leverage Singtel’s extensive fixed broadband network, submarine cables and 5G high-speed network connectivity together with the patented Paragon cloud platform to orchestrate their AI workloads in a multi-network and multi-cloud environment. Nxera will also provide customers with carrier neutrality to meet all their connectivity resiliency needs.
Driving sustainable growth through renewable energy partnerships
To achieve operational net-zero emissions by 2028, Nxera is working with leading energy players such as Sembcorp in Singapore and Gulf Energy, Medco Power and TNB Renewables in the region to tap on their renewable energy initiatives. Gulf Energy and Medco Power are partners in Nxera’s data centre joint ventures in Thailand and Indonesia respectively.
Test-bedding sustainable solutions for commercial deployment regionally
Nxera aims to achieve the lowest PUE and the highest water usage efficiency as part of developing the most sustainable data centre platform to power the AI future. In the area of sustainable technologies, Nxera and its partners, comprising local enterprises Deston and SGP Global as well as global leaders QCT, Shell, Stulz and Supermicro, will establish a co-innovation platform to develop and test liquid and immersion cooling and also water-saving technologies. When these technologies are operationalised, they will be implemented in DC Tuas in Singapore and data centres in the region. DC Tuas will have a PUE of 1.23 at full load and will be one of the lowest PUE and most efficient data centres in Asia.
Nxera also intends to develop a smart IoT and digital twin platform with local software company Red Dot Analytics to monitor, manage and optimise its data centre operations, using the platform’s predictive and simulation capabilities to achieve better overall energy efficiency and operational resiliency.
Creating new regional training academy to build a strong talent pipeline
Nxera is creating a Regional Sustainable Data Centre Academy in collaboration with institutes of higher learning to develop talent for the industry which is facing a shortage due to the rapid growth in data centre capacity in Southeast Asia. The academy will launch in mid-2024 with Singapore Institute of Technology, Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education as its first partners. It is expected to train more than 150 students annually, particularly in new areas of data centre development such as sustainability and high-density AI environments to create high-value jobs in Singapore and the region.
Nxera will jointly develop curriculum and training programmes incorporating practical workplace asynchronous learning for existing undergraduate, diploma and ITE DC-related courses and upskilling opportunities for seasoned and mid-career professionals, including competency-based, stackable micro-credentials that align with the latest technologies and practices as well as mentoring from industry experts. This collaboration will be extended to other institutes in its regional markets of Thailand and Indonesia in the next phase.
Mr Chang said, “As an industry leader, we are developing a sustainable data centre talent pipeline to power our growth in the region. It will augment and strengthen our long-standing expertise in designing, developing and operating data centres as we aim to make Nxera a trusted data centre brand that is future-proofed – one that provides excellent interconnectivity, efficiency, resiliency with high power density, while remaining sustainable.”
Serving the digital infrastructure needs of hyperscalers and enterprises, Nxera is currently developing three AI data centre projects. The new 58MW DC Tuas in Singapore and data centres with partners Telkom and Medco Power in Indonesia and Gulf Energy and AIS in Thailand will increase its total pipeline capacity to more than 200MW from its current operational capacity of 62MW in Singapore. These new data centres will be standardised for customers across countries to give those with multi-country operations a consistent experience and greater speed to market, and Nxera will continue to execute on this approach as it expands its footprint in Asia Pacific.
ANNEX - QUOTES FROM SINGTEL’S PARTNERS
MOU 1 - Supporting national and regional AI development
NVIDIA
"Our collaboration with Singtel will combine technologies and expertise to facilitate the development of robust AI infrastructure in Singapore and throughout the region. In addition to supporting the Singapore government’s AI strategy, this will empower enterprises, regional customers and startups with advanced AI capabilities.”
- Ronnie Vasishta, SVP Telecom, NVIDIA
MOU 2 - Driving sustainable growth through renewable energy partnerships
GULF ENERGY
“The partnership between Gulf Energy and Singtel marks a significant milestone in our commitment for green and sustainable data centres backed by renewable sources of energy. Together, we are paving the way towards greater environmental responsibility through Gulf’s renewables initiatives such as solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs).”
- Yupapin Wangviwat, Deputy CEO & CFO, Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited.
MEDCO POWER
“Being a leading power company in Indonesia, Medco Power is happy to partner with Singtel in their decarbonisation efforts to achieve net-zero operational carbon emissions for its data centres in the region.”
- Eka Satria, Director & Chief Executive Officer, Medco Power Indonesia
SEMBCORP INDUSTRIES
“As a leading renewables player in the region, we look forward to partnering Singtel in progressing decarbonisation initiatives for its data centre operations. Sembcorp Industries’ strong pipeline of sustainable energy, low-carbon projects and carbon management solutions will comprehensively support Singtel’s next phase of growth in Singapore. Our carbon management business, GoNetZero™, will support Singtel’s progress towards their net-zero goals through digital platform solutions and sourcing of verified environmental attributes including renewable energy certificates and carbon credits.”
- Koh Chiap Khiong, CEO, Singapore & Southeast Asia, Sembcorp Industries
TNB RENEWABLES
“Being the leading energy player in Malaysia, TNB Renewables is happy to partner Singtel in their decarbonisation efforts to achieve net-zero operational carbon emissions for its data centres in the region through exploring TNB Renewables’ various renewables initiatives such as the Centralised Solar Park or Corporate Green Power Programme.”
- Dr Wan Syakirah Wan Abdullah, Head, Business Assessment & Engineering, TNB Renewables
MOU 3 - Test-bedding sustainable solutions for commercial deployment regionally
DESTON
“Deston is proud to partner Singtel in revolutionising the treatment of cooling condenser water to achieve industry-leading Cycle of Concentration water savings and eliminate energy-wasting scaling buildup. We hope to be a key contributor to Singtel’s journey to become the lowest PUE and highest water efficiency data centre platform. “
- Lim Wei Yang, Director, Deston
QCT
“QCT is committed to creating smart innovations that enable companies to design, build, and operate the most sustainable data centres in Asia. Leveraging our QoolRack integrated liquid cooling rack solution, we are bringing alternative cooling technologies with enhanced PUE, which effectively lowers the power consumption where data centres need it the most. By partnering with Singtel, we are collaboratively contributing to a healthier planet with feasible solutions that significantly reduce our carbon footprint.”
- Mike Yang, President, QCT
RED DOT ANALYTICS
“We are proud to partner with Singtel in their journey developing next-generation green sustainable, highly efficient and resilient datacentres to support the wide adoption of AI. Leveraging Red Dot Analytics' cutting-edge digital twin technology and Singtel's state-of-the-art AI ready data centres, we plan to pioneer some of the industry's first AI DC focused use cases and solutions to tackle the unique challenges brought by extremely high rack power density and air-liquid hybrid cooling. We are very excited and looking forward to kick-start our collaborations soon.”
- Henry Xu, CEO, Red Dot Analytics
SGP GLOBAL
“SGP Global and partners are proud to collaborate with Singtel on the development and execution of Sustainable technological and commercial solutions in the DC sector, in order to journey with Singtel in developing green DCs and move towards achieving the national net-zero targets.”
- Lau Wah Ming, Deputy Chairman, SGP Global Group
STULZ ASIA HUB
“As a leading pioneer in mission-critical cooling solutions, Stulz is looking forward to partnering with Singtel, bringing our state-of-the-art liquid cooling technology such as direct-to-chip cooling and immersion cooling to their next generation data centres. This partnership aims to address key challenges in the data centre sector, including increased heat loads, space optimisation, energy efficiency, and sustainability. Our plug-and-play chip cooling concept offers a single-source solution where everything from the rack to the manifold to the cooling distribution unit is prefabricated and factory-tested, ensuring easy installation with minimal adjustments. We will continue to work closely with Singtel on future projects and pave the way for the data centre of tomorrow.”
- Patric Lee, Managing Director, Stulz Asia Hub
SUPERMICRO
“Supermicro is very happy and respectful of Singtel's vision to realise an energy-efficient AI data centre. It not only shows that they care about our planet's carbon footprint, but indeed they will also reduce their data centre energy cost significantly. As their close AI and server partner, we will do our best to help Singtel with the lowest energy consumption systems and work with them to achieve one of lowest PUE data centres in the world.”
- Charles Liang, Chairman and CEO, Supermicro
MOU 4 - Creating new regional training academy to build a strong talent pipeline
INSTITUTE OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION
“The data centre landscape is poised for a surge in demand in tandem with the growth of cloud services and IoT which generate massive data and require efficient data storage and processing. This partnership with Singtel will enable ITE to stay connected with developments in the data centre industry as well as provide opportunities for ITE Work-Study Diploma trainees and graduates to grow their careers. From designing energy-efficient cooling systems to optimising for renewable energy integration, our ITE trainees and graduates will be at the forefront of building and operating the next-generation, eco-conscious data centres."
- Low Khah Gek, CEO, ITE
NANYANG POLYTECHNIC
“We are glad to partner Singtel to develop the next generation of green data centres. This is also aligned to our focus and vision around sustainability. At NYP, it is our tenet that we prepare our graduates for emerging roles of the future, and working with industry leaders to shape our curriculum. We look forward to further deepening our ties and doing more research and innovation activities as this sector grows.”
- Russell Chan, Principal & CEO, Nanyang Polytechnic
SINGAPORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
“This is a valuable opportunity for SIT to work with Singtel to contribute towards capability building in sustainable data centres. Together with the polytechnics and ITE, we will offer a suite of training programmes to equip Singtel and the larger industry with in-demand skills such as mechanical and electrical design, and sustainable management and operation of data centres. This will include short programmes to support the learners to meet the competencies required for the job, and new pathways to upskill to a degree.”
- Professor Chua Kee Chaing, President, SIT
SINGAPORE POLYTECHNIC
“In forging this strategic partnership with Singtel, we further solidify our dedication to championing sustainability in our nation. Our goal is to harness the collaborative strengths of Singapore Polytechnic to elevate the nation’s workforce, addressing the evolving demands of next-generation data centres. By integrating best practices and greener technologies, we aspire to build, power, cool and manage these centres efficiently. With approximately 70 data centres in Singapore consuming 7% of the country’s total electricity, we hope this collaboration will serve as a guiding light for the data centre community and spearhead the adoption of sustainable engineering practices. Let us pave the way for Singapore’s economic and strategic interests to flourish responsibly together.”
- Soh Wai Wah, Principal and Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Polytechnic
TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC
“TP is excited to partner with Singtel and the other Institutes of Higher Learning to create innovative training programmes and pathways to support the rapid growth of sustainable data centres. TP will leverage our experience in sustainable facility management to develop a robust training pipeline of technicians and engineers for data centres. We will also work with our partners to establish a clear training framework to nurture talents that will support the expansion of data centres in Singapore and the region."
- Peter Lam, Principal & CEO, Temasek Polytechnic