Jul 02, 2026 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
Singapore has proposed new licensing, security, and sustainability rules for data centers under its draft Digital Infrastructure Bill. If approved, data centers over 10MW serving third-party customers would need a license from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), while a separate licensing framework would apply to facilities between 3MW and 9MW.
Cloud providers with more than $100 million in average annual revenue from Singapore users would also need a license. The proposed rules require operators to strengthen security, maintain resilience plans, report cyber incidents, and could introduce future sustainability requirements, adding new regulatory obligations for the sector.
Singapore halted new data center developments in 2019 due to land and power constraints before partially lifting the moratorium in 2022 through a pilot scheme. In 2023, 80MW of new capacity was awarded to Equinix, GDS, Microsoft, and the AirTrunk–ByteDance consortium, with a further 200MW opened for bidding last December.
