TL;DR

  • Singapore’s EDB and IMDA provisionally allocated 200 MW of new data centre capacity equally among Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel Data Centres, and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres under the DC-CFA2 application outcome.
  • The selection marks a shift from capacity expansion to national value creation, requiring operators to commit to over 50% green energy usage and advanced liquid cooling deployments.
  • Winning proposals were evaluated on their alignment with national priorities, such as strengthening Singapore as an AI hub, fostering local R&D, and building talent ecosystems.
  • Physical layer infrastructure must be engineered for long-term scalability, accommodating higher fibre density, low optical loss, and technology refreshes reaching 1.6T network speeds

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Why the four selected operators reveal a shift from capacity expansion to national value creation – and what it means for the physical infrastructure behind AI-ready data centres.

4

selected operators

 200 MW

provisional capacity

 50 MW

per operator

 >50%

green-energy commitment

On 21 August 2026, Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced the outcome of the second Data Centre – Call for Application (DC-CFA2).1 From more than 20 proposals, Digital Realty, Equinix, Keppel Data Centres and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres were selected. Each has been provisionally allocated 50 MW of new capacity, creating a combined total of 200 MW.1

At first glance, this appears to be another allocation of data centre capacity. The evaluation priorities and the capabilities represented by the four selected operators, however, point to a broader change in Singapore’s policy: the competition is no longer only about who can build efficiently, but who can convert constrained resources into the greatest strategic and economic value.

For infrastructure providers, that shift has direct consequences. Higher rack densities, liquid-cooled environments and the move from 400G and 800G towards 1.6T demand a physical layer designed for higher fibre density, lower optical loss and continuous technology upgrades.

What DC-CFA2 Asked Operators to Deliver

DC-CFA2 was launched on 1 December 2025 to support continued growth in Singapore’s digital economy and AI infrastructure while keeping resource use under control. Successful proposals had to address three linked objectives:1

  • Strengthen Singapore’s position as a trusted hub for AI, data centres and international digital connectivity, while improving infrastructure resilience.
  • Create economic contributions beyond the data centre investment itself, including R&D, technology innovation, talent development and collaboration with Singapore-based organisations.
  • Present a credible sustainability plan that can be implemented in practice.

The four selected operators committed to exceeding the minimum sustainability requirements, including powering more than 50% of their data centre capacity with green energy, deploying advanced technologies such as liquid cooling, using highly energy-efficient IT equipment and meeting Green Mark Data Centre Platinum requirements.1

Eligible green-energy pathways include biomethane, low-carbon ammonia, low-carbon hydrogen, fuel cells with carbon capture, and building-integrated or building-applied photovoltaics.1, 2 Together, these requirements show that DC-CFA2 is not simply comparing investment size, data hall area or delivery speed. It is evaluating the wider value each proposal can deliver to Singapore.

The Scarce Resource Is Every Megawatt

Singapore faces an unusually tight set of development constraints. Demand for AI, cloud computing and digital services is growing rapidly, yet land, electricity and water are limited, and expansion must remain aligned with national decarbonisation goals.2 Singapore therefore cannot follow the model of much larger markets by continuously adding land and power supply.

“The key question is no longer how much data centre capacity Singapore can build, but how much value each constrained megawatt can create,” which is a policy implication derived from DC-CFA2’s published priorities.

Low PUE, financial strength, reliability and construction capability remain essential, but they increasingly look like entry requirements rather than final differentiators. A competitive proposal must also connect new capacity to advanced computing, international connectivity, local R&D, talent development and credible low-carbon energy outcomes.

What the Four Selected Operators Reveal

EDB and IMDA did not disclose individual applicant scores or the full content of each proposal. The comparison below is therefore an interpretation based on published evaluation priorities and publicly available information – not a claim about the authorities’ undisclosed reasons for selection.

Operator Strategic capability Alignment with DC-CFA2
Digital Realty Global digital infrastructure and cross-border connectivity PlatformDIGITAL and its work with BW Digital link Singapore capacity to regional cloud, AI, network and subsea-cable infrastructure.3
Equinix Enterprise interconnection and a dense digital ecosystem Its interconnection platform brings enterprises, cloud providers, networks and digital services together, aligning with Singapore’s role as a regional digital hub.6
Keppel Data Centres Integrated energy, cooling and infrastructure Keppel’s energy and infrastructure capabilities are relevant to Jurong Island’s shared utilities, low-carbon fuels, thermal systems and microgrid direction.4
ST Telemedia GDC AI-ready operations and cooling capability Its experience with high-density infrastructure and liquid-cooling deployment reflects the operational requirements of AI and HPC facilities.5

How the Rules of Competition Are Changing

1. Building capability is the baseline

Construction capability, financial strength, PUE, reliability and delivery speed remain essential. The differentiators are increasingly the additional outcomes a project can deliver: deployed computing capacity, local R&D, talent development, international connectivity, energy innovation and measurable long-term economic value.

2. Energy strategy begins at the design stage

Energy can no longer be treated simply as a utility connection added after the facility is built. Sources, storage, microgrids, low-carbon fuels, load management and thermal utilisation must be considered from the earliest stages. Green-energy claims will also need to be specific, scalable and genuinely deliverable.

3. Efficiency must extend beyond PUE

PUE measures the relationship between total facility energy and IT-equipment energy, but it does not show how much useful computing output is produced. Future assessments are likely to consider the efficiency and utilisation of servers and accelerators, the workload value created, and the digital output supported per unit of energy, water and carbon.

4. Cooling architecture must match the workload

The future is unlikely to be a simple replacement of air cooling with liquid cooling. High-density GPU systems may require direct liquid or immersion cooling, while network equipment, storage and lower-density devices may remain air-cooled. Hybrid cooling architectures will need to coordinate different heat densities within the same facility.5

5. The physical layer must remain upgradeable

AI chips, network speeds and rack power densities can evolve faster than the building itself. Data centres therefore need high-density fibre connectivity, low-loss optical links, scalable structured cabling architectures that can evolve from 400G and 800G to 1.6T and beyond, and cable pathways compatible with liquid-cooled equipment.

6. Data centres are becoming part of an industrial energy system

Locating the projects on Jurong Island creates opportunities to connect data centres with low-carbon fuels, shared utilities, energy storage, microgrids and thermal systems.2, 4 The long-term model is not four isolated low-carbon buildings, but a wider ecosystem in which digital infrastructure, energy and industry support one another.

What This Means for Data Centre Physical Infrastructure

The shift identified in DC-CFA2 reaches all the way down to the physical layer. If a facility is expected to accommodate changing compute platforms and cooling methods over many years, cabling and connectivity can no longer be designed only around today’s equipment layout.

  • Fibre density must scale without creating unmanageable congestion inside racks and pathways.
  • Optical performance must support higher speeds and tighter loss budgets as networks progress towards 800G and 1.6T.
  • Cabling routes, patching systems and rack layouts must coexist with liquid-distribution infrastructure and mixed cooling architectures.
  • Modularity and clear migration paths are essential to avoid disruptive physical-layer rebuilds during technology refreshes.
  • Documentation, testing and lifecycle management become increasingly important as connectivity environments grow denser and more complex.

For cabling and connectivity providers the implication is clear: the physical layer must be engineered not merely for current port counts, but for the next several generations of compute, cooling and network architecture.

From Capacity Allocation to Value Creation

DC-CFA2 does not remove the fundamental requirements for power, cooling, connectivity and reliability. It changes the level at which projects must compete. A 50 MW allocation is not, by itself, the final source of value. What matters is whether that capacity can be converted into advanced computing, international connectivity, local innovation, talent development and credible low-carbon outcomes.

The four selected operators each illustrate a different capability: global platform reach, enterprise interconnection, energy integration and AI-ready operations. Together, they suggest that future data centre competition will extend across the entire technology, energy, economic and industrial ecosystem.

For companies planning the next generation of data centres, the decisive question is no longer simply how many megawatts can be built, but what irreplaceable value those megawatts can create – and whether the underlying physical infrastructure can continue supporting that value as technology evolves.

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About the Author

XinYue leads digital marketing and content at Hermesys, a Singapore-based provider of fibre optic, structured cabling and data centre infrastructure solutions across Southeast Asia. She writes about data centre development, digital infrastructure policy and the physical-layer technologies behind AI-ready facilities.

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