Reviewing Adequacy of 300 Megawatt Additional Data Centre Capacity Baseline in Roadmap

Ms Poh Li San asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information in view of the national push for AI adoption (a) whether the Ministry will review the baseline of 300 megawatts additional data centre capacity outlined in the Green Data Centre Roadmap; and (b) other than the four new data centres recently announced, whether more data centres will be expected in the near future.

Sir, data centres are an important digital infrastructure. Over the years, Singapore has grown considerable data centre capacity. To support our digital development plans, we will provide room for more capacity to be built in a measured and sustainable way. This could be through new builds or upgrading of existing data centres. For example, the Digital Infrastructure Bill, which was recently introduced in Parliament, will mandate and uplift baseline sustainability standards for all data centres. Notwithstanding these efforts, the Government will continuously engage industry stakeholders and review the need for more data centre capacity to support our evolving priorities.

Ms Poh.

I thank Senior Minister of State Tan for the reply. I have two supplementary questions.

First one, how does the Government ensure that data centre operations in Singapore remain environmentally sustainable as demand for the AI compute grows?

And second supplementary question, what are the considerations and balance between AI push, data security, environmental sustainability and land use in deciding the number and capacity of data centres to be built locally within Singapore?

Sir, we are not pursuing capacity for capacity's sake. And to Ms Poh's second question, it is a pertinent one. We are not chasing how much megawatt we can add in Singapore. We are looking at how to optimise every value-added for every megawatt coming to Singapore, which includes raising sustainability standards, making sure they are resilient, digitally secure and making sure they add strategic economic value to Singapore. That is my first point.

So, yes, we do want to support the AI needs and the digital economy as it grows because this is essential for our future economy. But we will not do so just for the sake of growing the data centre capacity. We do so in a disciplined and calibrated way. And that is at the heart of the Digital Infrastructure Act, which has been tabled in Parliament for First Reading yesterday.

So, our approach is two-fold. We are growing new capacity in a disciplined and calibrated way, making sure that whatever new capacity comes in adds value to Singapore and is sustainable, and meets the high requirements on efficiency. At the same time, we need to uplift the entire sector and that is through the Digital Infrastructure Act. So, we are not chasing capacity for its own sake and it is not a false choice between growth and sustainability. We want both and we will do so in a competitive and sustainable way.