THE Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Economic Development Board (EDB) have put the data centre industry on notice with their choice of operators allowed to grow capacity, market watchers said.

The picks show a focus on value and a search for fresh ideas and unique capabilities that benefit the Singapore economy, including artificial intelligence (AI).

Last Friday (Jul 14), IMDA and EDB announced that four parties would be allowed a combined 80 megawatts (MW) of new data centre capacity: data centre operators GDS and Equinix, a consortium comprising data centre specialist AirTrunk and TikTok-owner ByteDance, and software giant Microsoft.