Singapore Telecom partners with NVIDIA to build an AI research center, data sovereignty and high-density data centers become new necessities for enterprises

On February 24, according to Forbes magazine, Singapore’s largest telecommunications provider, Singtel, announced a partnership with NVIDIA to establish an AI “Excellence Center,” scheduled to officially launch in June 2026. The center will primarily serve enterprise clients such as banks, hospitals, and government agencies that have high demands for data sovereignty and local computing power. This project marks the telecom company’s accelerated shift toward becoming an AI infrastructure provider to meet enterprise-level AI deployment and compliant data processing needs.

The research center will support companies in processing sensitive data locally, reducing cross-border data transfer risks, and strengthening data security and regulatory compliance. Bill Chang, CEO of Singtel Infraco, stated that as AI becomes deeply involved in enterprise decision-making processes, there is a growing demand for data privacy protection, local storage architectures, and auditable AI systems. This has driven rapid development in sovereign clouds and local AI computing infrastructure.

Technologically, the new center will focus on designing next-generation data centers with power densities ranging from 600 kW to 1 MW, significantly surpassing traditional facilities in computing density. By integrating liquid cooling technology and high-interconnect architectures, it aims to build an ecosystem supporting large model training and AI application expansion. Marc Hamilton pointed out that chips are just one part of the AI industry chain; true competitiveness comes from complete AI infrastructure and scalable computing networks.

Strategically, Singtel is reshaping its business structure through data centers and AI infrastructure. In response to the impact of instant messaging and cloud collaboration tools, the company has increased its regional data center footprint, including new facilities in Malaysia and advancing the “AI Grid” plan—building a scalable data center network supporting AI workloads.

Against the backdrop of intensifying global AI computing power competition, data sovereignty compliance, local AI deployment for enterprises, sovereign computing centers, and high-density data center construction are becoming vital to the digital transformation of Asia-Pacific companies. This also highlights the rising strategic value of telecom operators in the AI infrastructure race.