Smaller data centres could soon become irrelevant as rise of AI fuels demand for hyperscale facilities: Report

SINGAPORE: Smaller data centres could soon become irrelevant as the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) drives demand for hyperscale and even gigawatt-scale facilities in the data centre industry, Singapore Business Review reported, citing the latest report from UOB Kay Hian Research.

The report noted that as AI requires powerful computing systems with massive parallel processing and large storage, the training of these models also demands huge amounts of electricity.

For example, a single ChatGPT query uses almost 10 times more power than a Google search.

According to the report, with data centres already needing significant amounts of power and water, high-density server racks of up to 120 kilowatts (kW) each are becoming standard, necessitating advanced liquid cooling systems. To support this, data centres must be built with added infrastructure to supply large quantities of electricity and water.

More than 500 hyperscale data centres, which typically operate from 20 megawatts (MW) to more than 50 MW, are already in the planning and construction stages worldwide.

These facilities provide “unmatched” cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability for handling digital workloads and are optimised for “high-density computing” that allows companies to run thousands of servers and manage petabytes of data with very low latency, the report said.

Hyperscale capacity is expected to double every four years, with about 130 to 140 new data centres added annually, according to Synergy Research.

Notably, data centres in Singapore are better suited for mission-critical and low-latency uses, such as financial services and AI inference. The city-state also acts as a hub linking Southeast Asia to the global network through 26 international subsea cables and three cable landing sites.

To support future demand, Singapore is eyeing at least US$10 billion in investments over the next decade to expand subsea cable capacity and landing sites. Domestic infrastructure will also be upgraded, with broadband speeds of 10 Gbps expected within the next five years. /TISG

Read also: Johor’s data centre boom set to drive 18-fold surge in water demand, pushing shift to reclaimed wastewater

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