AirTrunk seeks loan for mystery 80.2MW data centre in Singapore
Industry watchers scratching their heads over reported greenfield facility.
AirTrunk is borrowing US$1.7B for a new 80.2MW data centre in Singapore. And industry watchers are scratching their heads over this mystery facility.
According to a Bloomberg report this afternoon, AirTrunk is seeking a US$1.7 billion (SG$2.2b) green loan for a new data centre project in Singapore.
Except nobody could figure out where this greenfield data centre is supposed to be.
Limited data centre builds
A frontrunner at recognising the value of data centres, Singapore is currently a regional data centre hub. Unfortunately, sustainability concerns put the brakes on them.
In 2019, Singapore imposed an "implicit" moratorium on new data centres. It ended in 2022 with the announcement of a Data Centre - Call for Application (DC-CFA) exercise.
The DC-CFA raised the bar on the sector here by awarding capacity for new data centres based on a list of sustainability and economic criteria.
In short, data centre capacity is tightly managed in Singapore, and everyone in the industry knows who it goes to. Or do they truly?
AirTrunk in Singapore
In 2023 when the DC-CFA winners were announced, AirTrunk was one of four winning operators awarded 20MW of new capacity each.
It is not clear if the construction of AirTrunk's new data centre has started, though I heard a contractor has been awarded. But that's 20MW; AirTrunk is apparently raising money for a new 80.2MW data centre.
Separately, AirTrunk has an operational SGP1 data centre campus in Loyang, which launched in 2020 as a "60+" MW data centre, and is now a "78+" MW campus, according to its website - I don't think it is related to the loan.
A slice of the cloud
In May last year, Singapore shocked the industry when it announced 300MW of new capacity for data centres, a massive injection to the 1.4GW of data centres here.
According to my notes, this capacity will be allocated through processes such as the DC-CFA - but not limited to it, and is available to both new and existing data centres.
What's happening here? The report does say the loans will fund AirTrunk's "buildout in Singapore until Dec. 31, 2050" and will be for a "key US clients".
So, has the Singapore government agreed to retroactively allocate more capacity to AirTrunk's DC-CFA facility? Is there a mistake in the Bloomberg report? Or did AirTrunk get approval for a new 80.2MW data centre outside of the DC-CFA?
Or something else entirely?
For now, the mystery remains.