US firm Equinix opens sixth Singapore data centre with investment of over S$370 million

US data centre giant Equinix has opened its sixth data centre in Singapore, SG6, with an initial investment of US$290 million (about S$371.55 million). It is also Equinix’s first facility built under the Data Centre – Call for Application (DC-CFA) exercise.

To support Singapore’s innovation ecosystem, Equinix will also work with the National University of Singapore’s Energy Solutions Hub to establish a Co-Innovation Facility within the data centre.

Expected to open in 2027, it will focus on emerging technologies such as liquid cooling and battery energy storage.

Located in Jalan Tukang in Jurong, SG6 opened ahead of schedule with an initial capacity of 8 megawatts. Its capacity is expected to reach 20 megawatts when fully developed.

Equinix has operated in Singapore since 2002. Its first five data centres are located in Ayer Rajah Crescent, Pioneer Walk, Tai Seng Drive and Sunview Drive.

Equinix Asia-Pacific president Cyrus Adaggra said the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and expansion of cloud services were driving rising demand for high-performance data centres.

Adaggra added, “Singapore remains a strategic gateway for businesses serving the region, connecting key markets, talent and innovation ecosystems.

“SG6 strengthens our ability to support customers as they scale across Asia-Pacific, providing the resilient, interconnected and sustainable infrastructure they need to accelerate innovation and capture new growth opportunities.”

Speaking at the opening ceremony for SG6 on Friday (6 November), Tan Kiat How, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and Health, said AI infrastructure was increasingly a “system story”.

Computing capacity requires power, power requires grids, and data centres require networks. Bringing these elements together requires capital, businesses and clear regulatory rules.

Tan added, “In the digital economy, we can help connect compute to power, infrastructure to capital, businesses to cloud platforms and ASEAN to global markets.”

He also noted that Singapore introduced the DC-CFA to address the demands that data centre construction places on land, water and power resources.

Data centre operators bidding under the exercise must compete not only on construction speed or scale, but also demonstrate their strengths in sustainability, strategic contribution and economic value.

In July 2023, the Singapore Economic Development Board and the Infocomm Media Development Authority allocated 80 megawatts of data centre capacity under the first DC-CFA round to a consortium comprising AirTrunk and ByteDance, as well as Equinix, GDS and Microsoft.

Under the second DC-CFA round, Singapore awarded a total of 200 megawatts in new data centre capacity to four operators: Equinix, Digital Realty, Keppel Data Centres and ST Telemedia Global Data Centres.