Singtel works with NVIDIA to bring AI to Singapore, Southeast Asia

Singtel said its NVIDIA-powered AI Cloud will be hosted by Singtel’s Nxera regional data center business

Singaporean telco Singtel said it has joined the NVIDIA Partner Network Cloud Program, which will enable it to bring NVIDIA’s full-stack AI platform to enterprises across Southeast Asia

Singtel’s NVIDIA-powered AI Cloud will be hosted by Singtel’s Nxera regional data center business, which will be developing a new generation of hyper-connected AI-ready data centers.

“We are pleased to collaborate with AI leader NVIDIA to deliver AI infrastructure services, democratizing access for enterprises, startups, government agencies and research organizations to leverage the power of AI sustainably within our purpose-built AI data centers,” said Bill Chang, CEO of Nxera and Singtel’s Digital InfraCo.

“This tie-up provides an easy on-ramp for enterprises across all industries which can accelerate their development of generative AI, large language models, AI fine-tuning and other AI workloads. Together with our sustainable AI DCs, 5G network platform and our AI cluster with NVIDIA, these form part of our next-generation digital infrastructure to support AI adoption and digital transformation in Singapore and the region,” Chang added.

“Our collaboration with Singtel will combine technologies and expertise to facilitate the development of robust AI infrastructure in Singapore and throughout the region. In addition to supporting the Singapore government’s AI strategy, this will empower enterprises, regional customers and startups with advanced AI capabilities,” said Ronnie Vasishta, SVP for Telecom at NVIDIA.

Singtel’s upcoming “hyper-connected” 58MW DC Tuas in Singapore will be one of the first data centers that will be AI-ready when it comes into operation in early 2026, according to the company. DC Tuas will offer a high- density environment suited for AI workloads and will operate at a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.23 at full load, making it one of the most efficient in the industry, Singtel said. Besides DC Tuas, Singtel is developing two other data center projects in Indonesia and Thailand, the telco added.

Singtel has had experience in delivering edge cloud services with NVIDIA AI, having trialed GPU services at the 5G@Sentosa testbed for many government agencies since 2021. Singtel’s patented Paragon platform will also enable customers to orchestrate, manage and deploy their various networks, AI and cloud workloads across multiple providers.

In December 2023, Singtel announced that it had successfully completed what it claims to be the country’s first trial of 5G New Radio Reduced Capability (RedCap) technology.

The Asian telco said that the trial was conducted on its live 5G network in collaboration with Ericsson and MediaTek.

RedCap, sometimes referred to as NR Light, is a reduced set of 5G capabilities intended for devices like wearables and low-cost hotspots that have low battery consumption, lower costs and lower bandwidth requirements. Introduced with 3GPP Release 17, 5G RedCap is designed for devices currently served by LTE CAT-4 but provides equivalent or better in performance with up to 150 Mbps theoretical maximum downlink throughput.

The telco said that the month-long trial took place across five different Singtel 5G Standalone (SA) locations, utilizing Ericsson’s RedCap solution and MediaTek’s RedCap testing device.

To date, Singtel’s 5G Standalone coverage spans over 1,600 outdoor locations and 800 buildings, including underground train lines.