A multimillion-dollar "micro AI grid" will let Singapore enterprises test large-scale artificial intelligence deployments before flipping them into production, under a new partnership between Singtel and Nvidia announced today.
The Centre of Excellence for Applied Artificial Intelligence opens in Singapore's Punggol Digital District within three months, targeting companies stuck between pilot projects and full implementation. Singtel's infrastructure unit Digital InfraCo will operate the facility with Nvidia providing graphics processing units, cooling systems, and technical support.
Enterprises gain access to what Digital InfraCo CEO Bill Chang calls a national power grid analogy: AI data centers act as generators, fixed networks serve as transmission lines, and edge locations function as substations.
The center mirrors commercial infrastructure so organizations can experiment with real-world problems alongside large language model makers and application providers.
"When you go for full-scale deployment, you smooth flip over to the main AI grid and get the resources," Chang explained about the testbed approach.
Nvidia senior vice-president Marc Hamilton described the partnership as implementing CEO Jensen Huang's five-layer foundation for AI deployments. The model starts with physical land and power facilities from Singtel's Nxera data center arm, adds Nvidia GPUs as the second layer, then incorporates broader AI infrastructure including networking and cloud orchestration before reaching models and applications.
Companies will tap Digital InfraCo's Nxera platform for high-density compute-intensive projects alongside Singtel's sovereign AI cloud provider Re:AI for GPU infrastructure. The ecosystem includes low-latency networks where computing system responses happen with minimal delay.
Senior Minister of State Tan Kiat How announced the initiative at Singtel's FutureNow Innovation Centre in Tanjong Pagar earlier today.
"Singapore's advantage does not lie in building the largest frontier models," Tan said.
"It lies in deploying AI effectively and responsibly."
The partnership formalizes collaboration that began in early 2024 when Singtel became a Nvidia cloud partner for the region. Ronnie Vasishta, Nvidia's senior vice-president for telecommunications, said combining Nvidia's infrastructure with Singtel's sovereign cloud creates "a secure and collaborative space where organizations and government agencies can progress from trials to scaled deployments with confidence."
Healthcare companies and research agencies have shown strong demand according to Chang, who noted many organizations struggle moving from initial excitement about artificial intelligence to meaningful impact.
