Google shared that they’ve at last completed the expansion of its data centre campus and cloud region in Singapore. The company has invested a total of $5 billion in digital infrastructure in Singapore, a substantial increase from $850m in 2018.
Giorgio Fortunato, head of clean energy and power in Asia-Pacific for Google, shared on LinkedIn that this investment will contribute to Singapore’s economic growth. He stated:
Major Expansion: “We have completed a major expansion of our data centre and cloud region campus in #Singapore, bringing Google’s total investments in technical infrastructure in the country to US$5 billion to support advancements in #Cloud and #AI technologies.”
Economic Impact:
“Google’s investment will contribute to Singapore’s economic growth, with businesses potentially gaining US$147.6 billion in benefits by 2030 through AI adoption.”
Efficiency Focus:
“Google’s data centres in Singapore are designed with industry-leading features, including efficient cooling and water management systems. Despite being in the tropics, the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of our Singapore data centres tracks closely to the average of our global fleet!”
Water Stewardship:
“Google was awarded the 2024 Water Efficiency Award by the Public Utilities Board (PUB), which recognises top water efficiency performers in their respective sectors.”
Community Engagement:
“Google is also supporting local sustainability initiatives like the ‘Eco Pond’ project in Bukit Batok together with SG Eco Fund to harvest rainwater and reduce reliance on potable water supply.”
How Does This Benefit Singapore?
The expansion of Google’s data centre and cloud region infrastructure will help meet the growing demand for cloud services locally and globally. It will also complement the strategic initiatives surrounding AI that Google and the Singaporean Government have made.
More than 500 people currently work in Google data centres in Singapore. These data centres operate at an average temperature of 27°C to keep employees and equipment comfortable while increasing efficiency.
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What Makes These Data Centres Special?
The data centres in Singapore are designed with industry-leading features, including efficient cooling and water management systems. They use cooling systems that are “specially engineered to reuse recycled water for cooling multiple times”.
Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google, said, “Data centres serve as the growth engines for digital progress by providing the foundation for digital transformation and innovation.”
What’s The History Behind This?
Google’s first data centre in Singapore began building up in 2011 and went live in late 2013. Work started on a second facility in 2015, which came online in 2017. Google opened its first cloud region in Singapore in 2017, and launched a third availability zone in the city-state in 2018.
In 2022, Google launched a third data centre, which came online two years later than originally planned, but is its largest data centre development in Singapore yet. Construction started in 2018.
Google In Malaysia
Last week, Google also announced that it was investing $2 billion in developing its first data centre and cloud region in Malaysia. This is after they announced in March that they were launching two focused initiatives to equip Malaysian youth with future-ready skills focused on AI, and enhance public service delivery with the help of cloud-native, AI-driven productivity tools.
What Are The Initiatives?
The first initiative involves Google and the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) working together to upskill Malaysian youth from diverse backgrounds by providing 161 institutes of higher learning with 500 Google Career Certificate scholarships each.
The second initiative involves equipping 445,000 public officers with Google Workspace tools to boost productivity across the public sector in collaboration with Jabatan Digital Negara (JDN), the government agency in charge of coordinating and implementing national and public sector digitalisation projects under the Ministry of Digital.
