Internet giant Google officially launched its third data centre in Singapore on Tuesday, bringing its total investments in such facilities in the city-state to $850 million.
“Singapore is a regional hub for our network of data centres, cloud regions and subsea cables, which connect the country to the rest of the region and the world, give people access to fast internet and help businesses transform,” Ben King, Google’s Singapore-based managing director, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
Google opened its first data centre in Singapore in 2011, and a second one in 2015.
“The reason we’re able to invest is because of the confidence in the future of Singapore. (…) Here is a place where technology can succeed and exist in everyday life,” Scott Beaumont, president, Google Asia-Pacific, spoke at the Google for Singapore event on the same day.
The tech giant also said it will help Singapore reinforce its position as a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) innovation.
Google Cloud will partner with the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group to create novel AI solutions that will improve how Singaporeans work and live. The partnership will also help deepen AI capabilities in public service and shape AI governance and ethics.
“The digital economy in Southeast Asia is only getting started, fueled by a huge untapped but fast-growing digital consumer market. On the government’s part, we will do everything we can to enhance our value proposition as a hub for the region so that we’re in a much better position to capitalise on these opportunities,” Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong said at the event.
Google launched its first office in Southeast Asia in Singapore in 2007, which is now the firm’s Asia Pacific headquarters.
The company stated during its Tuesday event that digital transformation was expected to unlock over $65 billion worth of economic value in Singapore by 2030.
It also looks to invest in digital safety and sustainability in Singapore and across the region. Google.org, its philanthropic arm, is committing a $1 million grant to conservation nonprofit Mandai Nature, which will work with other organisations in Southeast Asia on developing an online tool to map areas that host rich biodiversity, and hold the key to carbon reduction.
Google Cloud has also recently partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore to foster new climate finance solutions.