Google data centre

Google data centres have sustainable features, such as using recycled water for cooling. Representative photo courtesy: Google

Global tech giant Google has completed its fourth data centre in Singapore, taking its total infrastructure investment in the Asian business hub to USD 5 billion (SGD 6.7 billion).

The Straits Times reported that this announcement was made yesterday at a Google event in Mapletree Business City II, Pasir Panjang.

With this, the Google infrastructure investment in Singapore has increased more than 5-fold since 2022, when the company launched its third data centre in the island nation.

Earlier, citing its reasons for selecting Singapore as a data centre hub, Google had said that it was “proud to call Singapore home to multiple of our data centers”, starting from September 2011 in Jurong West. By 2022, the Google data centre investment in Singapore amounted to USD 850 million.

Google said: “More new Internet users come online every day in Asia than anywhere else in the world. Our data center facilities allow us to make sure that our users here have the fastest and most reliable access possible to all of Google’s services, and then some.”

Sustainability measures taken at Google data centres in Singapore include using recycled water for cooling systems. Attention to sustainability has also been paid in the new data centre design.

Janil Puthucheary, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information, reportedly said that “energy and carbon constraints” required new data centres to be “more sustainable”.

ST quoted Ken Siah, Asia-Pacific Head of Public Affairs for Google data centres, as saying that the company’s advanced computers could handle higher temperatures and needed less cooling, thereby less energy.

“Our experience is that by working together with the ecosystem, using human ingenuity and technological innovation, data centres can grow sustainably to meet the needs of AI, even here at the equator,” said Siah.