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Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel Data Centres and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres will each receive 50MW under Singapore’s second Data Centre Call for Application (DC-CFA2)
In sum – what to know:
200MW allocated – Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel Data Centres, and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres will each receive 50MW of new capacity.
Green requirements – At least 50% of the new capacity must use green or low-carbon energy, while operators will deploy liquid cooling and energy-efficient IT equipment.
Moratorium eased – Singapore paused new data center development in 2019, but began selectively reopening the market in 2022 through competitive allocation exercises.
Singapore is expanding data center capacity through a selective allocation of 200MW to four operators, as the city-state seeks to accommodate growing demand for AI and digital infrastructure while limiting the sector’s energy and resource footprint.
Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel Data Centres, and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres will each receive 50MW under Singapore’s second Data Center Call for Application (DC-CFA2), jointly administered by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). The authorities said more than 20 proposals were submitted for the exercise.
The allocation comes with sustainability requirements. The operators have committed to sourcing at least 50% of the power for their new capacity from green or low-carbon energy sources, including biomethane, low-carbon ammonia, and low-carbon hydrogen. The projects will also use liquid cooling and energy-efficient IT equipment.
The new facilities are expected to be developed at a low-carbon data center park on Jurong Island, where Singapore has reserved about 20 hectares for data center development. The site has the potential to support up to 700MW of data center capacity.
The allocation represents another step in Singapore’s gradual reopening of the data center market after a moratorium imposed in 2019. The government paused new data center development and the release of additional land for the sector while reviewing the industry’s use of constrained resources including land, power and water.
Singapore began easing the restrictions in 2022. EDB and IMDA launched a pilot call-for-applications process that year, allowing a limited amount of new capacity to be allocated to projects meeting requirements for energy efficiency and decarbonization. Four operators — Equinix, GDS, Microsoft and a consortium of AirTrunk and ByteDance — subsequently received about 80MW through the 2023 exercise.
The latest allocation is therefore not a full return to unrestricted data center development. Instead, Singapore is continuing to release capacity through competitive exercises that weigh infrastructure needs against sustainability and economic considerations. The government said it would review the need for another Data Center Call for Application in 18 to 24 months.
“The easing of Singapore’s data center moratorium hasn’t simply reopened the market, it has made new developments far more selective. Demand for AI infrastructure continues to outpace the limited capacity released under the DC-CFA framework, so investment is flowing toward projects that maximize value from every megawatt,” Pritesh Swamy, head of research and advisory for the data center group in Asia Pacific at Cushman & Wakefield told RCRTech.
“We’re seeing the strongest activity in AI-ready colocation facilities, hyperscale cloud expansion, upgrades to existing facilities with liquid cooling and higher rack densities, as well as strategic acquisitions of established platforms,” Swamy added.
