On the slowing data centre growth in Johor and biofuels

I was at the "Singapore Big Catch Up" gathering by W.Media earlier and met with many data centre friends at the jam-packed KPO Cafe Bar.

As usual, I quizzed various leaders to get the pulse of the industry.

Johor slowdown

A slowdown in the data centre industry might be inevitable due to several factors.

• Market was overhyped for the last two years.
• Dampening effect of U.S. AI Diffusion Policy.

Make no mistake though, there have been RFPs going out, so there's definite interest in data centres in Johor. But will the deals pan out? Only time will tell.

It might be a matter of holding power of data centre operators - a topic I wrote about previously.

Not all biofuels the same

What are some disadvantages of biofuel? I've previously written about STT GDC's use of HVO at one of its facilities and was curious about possible disadvantages.

Here are some of them:

• Expensive: as much as 3x the cost of diesel.
• Storage considerations to bear in mind.
• Might require periodic polishing*.

Still, the impact of cost is reduced in locations like Singapore where diesel generators are only fired up for operational checks.

*Filtration

Sheer breadth of industry

And while the data centre community is close-knit, I was once again reminded of how broad and diverse the industry really is.

Just today, I met senior executives hailing from:

• Enterprise, banks.
• Cloud hyperscalers.
• Water management.
• Data centre operators.
• Diesel generator vendor.
• Rear-door liquid cooling.
• GPU orchestration and billing.
• Data centre equipment maker.
• DC interconnectivity providers.

... and more.

Till the next gathering!