Equinix Developing $260M Data Centre as Sixth Singapore Facility

Equinix’s SG5 data centre in western Singapore

Equinix has begun constructing its sixth data centre in Singapore, with the US giant planning to invest $260 million in the International Business Exchange co-location facility.

Dubbed SG6, the nine-storey data centre is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027 and will provide 20 megawatts of IT capacity when fully built, Equinix said Tuesday in a release.

The project was awarded by Singapore authorities last year as part of a pilot programme after the city-state lifted its four-year moratorium on new data centre builds. SG6 will be powered by renewable energy and feature liquid cooling capability to support intensive workloads, including AI-related activity, according to Silicon Valley-based Equinix.

“By integrating the latest sustainability innovations, our new AI-ready data centre enables businesses to establish their digital infrastructure both responsibly and sustainably,” said Equinix Singapore managing director Yee May Leong.

After the Moratorium
The new facility’s location wasn’t disclosed, but media reports and public records point to a development site in western Singapore’s Jalan Tukang area.

Equinix Singapore managing director Yee May Leong

In July of last year, the Economic Development Board and Infocomm Media Development Authority awarded the rights to develop a total of 80MW of power capacity to Equinix, US tech giant Microsoft, China’s GDS Holdings and a tie-up of Aussie platform AirTrunk and TikTok parent ByteDance.

The scheme marked the reboot of data centre development in Singapore after the government had called a moratorium on new projects in 2019 as growth of the sector threatened to consume a double-digit slice of the nation’s power capacity.

Mingtiandi reported in September on GDS International’s acquisition of a western Singapore warehouse from CapitaLand Ascendas REIT for S$112.8 million ($86.4 million). The ex-China unit of Shanghai-based GDS recently signed agreements to raise $1 billion in equity to help fund the development of up to 1 gigawatt of data centre capacity.

SE Asia Presence Grows
Equinix broke ground on its latest Singapore location after last month’s announcement that the company would enter Thailand’s data centre market with a plan to invest $500 million in the kingdom’s digital infrastructure over the next decade.

As part of the rollout, Equinix paid $34 million for a Bangkok site on which to develop two data centres. The move gave the NASDAQ-listed group a presence in a fifth Southeast Asian country after establishing a foothold in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

In July, Equinix announced its entry into the Philippines with the acquisition of three facilities from Manila-based tech firm Total Information Management for an undisclosed price.

Equinix entered Malaysia in 2022 through a $40 million investment in a hyperscale facility in Johor, which came on the heels of a $74 million commitment for an Indonesian facility in central Jakarta.

Equinix’s global footprint spans 268 data centres in 34 countries, including 59 facilities in Asia Pacific.