Singaporean telecommunications company Singtel has partnered with industry group Bridge Alliance to offer GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) to businesses across Southeast Asia, expanding the reach of its services beyond its domestic market.
AIS, Maxis and Telkomsel are early adopters in a 35-company global alliance that has expressed interest in the service to meet growing demand for AI computing in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively.
At launch, Singtel's GPUaaS will be powered by clusters equipped with Nvidia H100 Tensor Core GPUs. Singtel is also one of the first companies globally to launch Nvidia's next-generation GB200 AI servers.
The service is expected to expand from mid-2025 onwards to run in new AI-enabled data centres at Nxera, Singtel's regional data centre operation across Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
As GPU needs grow, more GPU clusters will be added in each country, while the Bridge Alliance will help members accelerate their go-to-market strategies and drive the success of GPUaaS services in their local markets.
Singtel's GPUaaS can also bring AI capabilities to the edge through its Paragon multi-edge computing platform. During a trial with a Singapore government agency on the resort island of Sentosa, Singtel coordinated the use of Paragon and Nvidia GPUs to support large-scale 5G use cases.
“As more operators deploy 5G network services, we believe this real-time AI service, powered by GPUaaS at the low-latency 5G edge, will be a key growth driver for enterprise businesses,” said Bill Chan, CEO of Digital Infrastructure at Singtel.
Chan noted that Singtel's work with the Bridge Alliance and regional telcos will “democratise and accelerate the use of AI” by companies across industries, providing them with the tools to improve productivity and create business value.
Bridge Alliance CEO Ong Gyok Chooi said the collaboration was testament to the value of the Alliance in bringing together its members' collective capabilities to drive regional engagement and innovation, particularly for multinational companies.
Phupa Akavipat, acting chief enterprise business officer at AIS, noted that in Thailand, organisations across various industries are adopting AI to accelerate business transformation, and the GPUaaS offering will help them adopt and expand their use of the technology.
According to management consulting firm Kearney, if the transformative power of AI can be harnessed to create value, its adoption could contribute nearly $1 trillion to Southeast Asia's economies by 2030.
However, a recent survey commissioned by IBM found that while organisations in Southeast Asia are embracing AI, only 4% have reached transformational levels of AI maturity amid persistent talent, data and governance challenges.
