Singapore’s ‘Fomo’ amid the rise of the AI data centre

{"text":[[{"start":9.38,"text":"Singaporeans are a competitive bunch. "},{"start":12.022,"text":"One of the must-know Singlish words for those living in the city-state is kiasu. "},{"start":16.014000000000003,"text":"The Chinese Hokkien term roughly means a fear of missing or losing out and often refers to someone trying to get ahead of others. "},{"start":22.444000000000003,"text":"“Fomo on steroids” is how one Singaporean friend describes it. "}],[{"start":27.08,"text":"One of the best places to see this in action is the queues at lunchtime around stalls of the city-state’s favourite hawker food markets. "},{"start":33.897,"text":"Another area to observe the kiasu mentality in the Asian financial centre is in business, such as foreign investment. "}],[{"start":41.03,"text":"Singapore made a surprise announcement last month that it would free up more power for data centre expansion. "},{"start":46.759,"text":"The move came as the chief executives of Nvidia, Google, Microsoft and others have been swinging by neighbouring Malaysia — and other countries in south-east Asia — in recent months pledging billions in data centre investment. "}],[{"start":59.28,"text":"In Malaysia alone, the tech groups — three of the top four biggest companies by market capitalisation globally — have committed $8.5bn in new data centre, cloud and artificial intelligence investment in the past six months. "},{"start":72.209,"text":"Which is why more than one Malaysian government official joked that Singapore’s decision to court more data centres was a “typical Singapore kiasu response” to its neighbour’s progress. "}],[{"start":81.92,"text":"Of course there is some competition between Singapore and its neighbours, especially Malaysia from which it gained independence in 1965. "},{"start":89.512,"text":"But it is overly simplistic to dismiss Singapore’s move as kiasu-ness — even if there is an element of that at play. "},{"start":95.554,"text":"The city-state is already hyper connected and one of the biggest data centre markets in Asia — a trend that accelerated as Hong Kong became a less favoured destination for data centres and undersea cables. "},{"start":105.509,"text":"It is one of the top submarine cable hubs globally, with connections to 25 active subsea cables and more to come. "},{"start":112.077,"text":"None of that will change soon. "}],[{"start":114.28,"text":"The decision to increase data centre capacity last month was a surprise to many because the government imposed a more than three-year moratorium on new data centres between 2019 and 2022. "},{"start":124.822,"text":"The proliferation of the energy-guzzling facilities had been consuming a substantial amount of Singapore’s resources. "},{"start":130.764,"text":"That ban helped push data centre companies into nearby Johor, the Malaysian state just across the causeway, and to a certain extent Batam, a close-by Indonesian island. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":141.19,"text":"The conundrum Singapore faces now — like many other countries — is that it grossly underestimated how demand for AI is going to expand the global market for data centres in coming years. "},{"start":151.282,"text":"The city-state has made little secret of the fact that it wants to be the AI hub for south-east Asia, if not the top in Asia. "}],[{"start":158.67,"text":"That’s because being such a hub brings other economic benefits. "},{"start":162.387,"text":"For example, as part of Nvidia’s data centre investment in Malaysia, the company will partner with local conglomerate YTL Power to develop the country’s fastest supercomputers using Nvidia’s AI chips. "},{"start":173.35399999999998,"text":"Microsoft last month unveiled landmark AI infrastructure investments in Indonesia and Thailand. "}],[{"start":179.89,"text":"Singapore realises it cannot ultimately compete with its neighbours for land and power. "},{"start":184.719,"text":"The key is how to complement it. "},{"start":186.524,"text":"The reason Johor is popular with global tech giants from ByteDance to Nvidia and Microsoft is because it is just a few kilometres away from hyperconnected Singapore. "}],[{"start":195.80999999999997,"text":"“Both Johor and Singapore can benefit from the data centre boom. "},{"start":199.60199999999998,"text":"They complement each other,” says Rangnath Salgame, chair and chief executive of Princeton Digital Group, an Asian data centre company based in Singapore but expanding in Johor. "},{"start":209.38199999999998,"text":"It is a “symbiotic relationship”, he adds. "}],[{"start":212.66999999999996,"text":"And as more and more companies diversify supply chains away from China that puts Singapore in pole position. "},{"start":218.66199999999995,"text":"One way it can benefit is by promoting a Singapore + one strategy, whereby companies establish a headquarters in the country to leverage its international business environment, free trade agreements and access to professional talent, but then have their manufacturing — or data centre — facilities in places such as Johor. "}],[{"start":235.75999999999996,"text":"This is already a long-term trend. "},{"start":238.17699999999996,"text":"Singapore was the top recipient of inward foreign direct investment flows in south-east Asia between 2013 and 2022, according to the latest data published by the bloc. "},{"start":247.73199999999997,"text":"In 2022, Singapore attracted $141bn of FDI, accounting for more than half of the region’s total. "},{"start":255.19899999999996,"text":"So should Singapore really be kiasu? "}],[{"start":257.49999999999994,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/160389-1719283288.mp3"}