A new multimillion-dollar artificial intelligence (AI) centre of excellence (CoE) has been established through a partnership between Singtel and Nvidia. This facility aims to address the infrastructure and skill shortages that impede the scaling of AI initiatives for various organizations. Announced today, the CoE is structured to assist in transitioning AI projects from initial pilot phases to complete production.
Bill Chang, who serves as CEO of Singtel Digital InfraCo, remarked that the CoE differentiates itself in Singapore by focusing on applied AI. The center invites enterprises to present their real-world issues, fostering collaboration with a network of large language model developers, application providers, and systems integrators. Chang likened the CoE to a micro AI grid, where AI data centers act as generators and edge locations function as substations, facilitating seamless transitions to full-scale deployments.
Marc Hamilton, Nvidia's senior vice-president of solutions architecture and engineering, emphasized that this collaboration builds upon Nvidia's five-layer foundation for AI deployments, which involves multiple elements including Singtel's infrastructure and Nvidia's GPU technology. He also mentioned plans to utilize Nvidia's extensive network of 40,000 AI startups to support Singtel’s customers in developing AI applications, aiming to ensure that Singapore maintains its competitive advantage in the sector.