SINGAPORE - US internet giant Google announced on Wednesday (Aug 1) it will be building a third data centre in Singapore to meet rapid user growth in the region, bringing its total long-term investment in such facilities here to US$850 million.
A Google spokesman told The Business Times its latest data centre will add another US$350 million to its spending in Singapore.
The company said in a blog post that it has begun construction on the third facility located in Jurong West "just down the road" from its first two centres.
Google said the third data centre, which is expected to come online in 2020, will be built on a plot of land the size of the first and second centres combined.
The tech giant did not say in the blog post how many new jobs its latest data centre will create but the Google spokesman said "we are are actively hiring, with openings listed on our jobs site".
Google, which said it currently employs more than 1,000 people in Singapore, is advertising openings for roles like data centre technician, programme manager for data centre design and site director for hardware operations.
The company started building its first South-east Asia data centre in Singapore in 2011, with a second going operational in 2015. In addition to powering consumer services, it also opened a Google Cloud Platform region last year to serve enterprise customers and other clients.
"The pace hasn't slowed. In the three years since our last update, more than 70 million people in Southeast Asia started getting online for the first time, bringing the region's total to more than 330 million - that's more than the whole population of the United States," Joe Kava, Google's vice president of Global Data Centres Google wrote in a Googlegram.
"More businesses are getting online too, which has meant quickly growing demand for our expanding Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offerings," he added, citing the likes of Singapore Airlines, ridehailing startup Go-Jek, logistics firm Ninjavan and travel search engine Wego.
Mr Kava also included an artist's rendering of the multi-story building and noted that it will be "one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly sites in Asia." Machine learning will be leveraged to reduce energy usage, while recycled water will be used with 100 per cent of waste diverted from landfills.
