STT GDC Thailand has announced its readiness for an artificial intelligence-enabled data centre to support demand for growing AI usage.
The company reported an uptick in its new customer segment -- cloud providers using Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) -- who host their service with STT GDC in Thailand to serve GPU workload demand for AI usage, Supparat Sivapetchranat Singhara na Ayutthaya, chief executive of STT GDC Thailand, told the Bangkok Post.
STT GDC Thailand is a joint venture between Singapore-based ST Telemedia Global Data Centres and Frasers Property Ltd.
Nvidia cloud provider is a new segment, referring to companies that offer cloud based services powered by Nvidia GPUs, enabling customers to access high-performance computing resources.
The new segment is gaining an advantage from a geopolitical conflict that has resulted in Chinese cloud providers being prevented from importing Nvidia chips, while the US cloud providers in Thailand have yet to complete the construction of their facilities in the country.
STT GDC in Singapore reported its data centres across Southeast Asia have AI readiness.
The company is the first international operator with a data centre footprint across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, with more than 500 megawatts (MW) of data centre capacity, both operational and under construction.
Part of this capacity is designed to cater to AI and general-purpose computing workloads. Its AI clusters are already operational in STT GDC's data centres in both Singapore and Thailand today, with additional AI clusters expected to be operational in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia within the next two years.
The STT GDC data centres across Southeast Asia are designed and equipped to accommodate the latest GPU chips including Nvidia's Blackwell products with substantial thermal design power, resulting in higher density powered racks ranging from 10 to 150 kilowatts (KW) per rack.
Mr Supparat said by becoming an AI-ready data centre, it requires additional power consumption of 15-20MW, compared to a regular cloud-based data centre's average power consumption of 5-10MW.
By year-end, total data centre capacity in Thailand should reach 357.45 MW before exceeding 400MW at the end of 2025.
Meanwhile, global cloud data centre provider Google Cloud plans to expand its partnership with Gulf Energy Development Plc on cloud capability, with an agreement scheduled to be signed on Thursday.
A source in the data centre business who requested anonymity said the Gulf-Google partnership might be related to Gulf's plan to invest in clean energy to support the renewable energy requirements of Google Cloud data centres.
In August 2022, Google announced its plan to establish a Google Cloud Region in Thailand.
