Singapore’s next data-centre growth wave lies in AI inference: Digital Realty

[SINGAPORE] As Singapore grapples with tight land and power supply, Digital Realty said the next phase of growth for its data centres will lie in artificial intelligence (AI) inference – the process of running AI models for real-world applications.

Serene Nah, managing director and Asia-Pacific head at the data centre operator, told The Business Times that Singapore is increasingly positioning itself as a regional hub for AI inference.

Unlike larger facilities that are focused on model training, AI inference data centres require less computing power and space. However, such infrastructure is sensitive to latency, meaning that it needs to be located nearer to end-users to minimise delays when accessing services.