Singapore data centre company Sustainable Metal Cloud (SMC) to raise nearly $950 million in fresh funds to tap the global AI boom to spur its growth.
As reported by Bloomberg, SMC, an affiliate of Australian company Firmus Technologies, is finalising a preliminary equity round of about $400 million. In addition, the company reportedly plans to raise $550 million in debt.
Discussions on the size of the fundraising are ongoing and there could be changes. However, the funds received will be used to expand the company’s data centre beyond Singapore.
The data centre market
As per a report by Moody’s Ratings, Asia-Pacific region will be the fastest-growing market for data centres over the next five years. Companies are ready to invest around $564 billion in the region’s data centres through 2028 as their capacity is projected to grow at a compound annual average rate of almost 20% over that span.
Catching up on this trend is SMC, backed by Singapore’s ST Telemedia Global Data Centres. It offers companies use of advanced NVIDIA chips, which are vital for AI applications.
Founded by Tim Rosenfield, the company notes that it has over 1,200 of Nvidia’s high-end H100 AI chips operational in Singapore currently, and intends to increase this to 5,000 by the end of the year. Demand for that model is high, so much so that some customers would have to wait as long as six months to receive it, the report noted.
What does SMC do?
The NVIDIA partner SMC develops a cooling technology, which is touted to cut data centres’ energy consumption by nearly 50%. Its method involves submerging the data centre’s computers in liquid to draw heat away faster.
As per the company, it has over 1,200 of Nvidia’s high-end H100 AI chips operational in Singapore. It aims to increase that to 5,000 by the end of the year. Demand for that model is so great that some customers are having to wait as long as six months to receive it.
