Singapore spends $270M on AI infrastructure, human resources

By VNA October 29, 2024 | 04:50 pm PT

Singapore's National Research Foundation (NRF) will allocate US$270 million to the National Supercomputing Center (NSCC) in the next three years to train specialists and develop next-gen supercomputers in order to boost AI through supercomputing talent and infrastructure.

This marks NRF's second investment in supercomputing.

Deputy Prime Minister and NRF Chairman Heng Swee Keat emphasized the importance of talent in maximizing the benefits of supercomputing for advancements in AI, healthcare, and climate research.

NSCC’s latest supercomputers, Aspire 2A and Aspire 2A+, deliver computing power 200,000 times that of a laptop and support AI and complex data analysis remotely. Aspire 2A+ features Nvidia H100 GPUs for large AI models, similar to those used in ChatGPT.

NSCC CEO Terence Hung highlighted the need for more skilled operators, noting that Singapore currently has fewer than 100 experts in this field. With the new funding, NSCC aims to expand the workforce to thousands.

Supercomputing also aids climate research, helping Singapore prepare for sea-level rise and extreme weather, said Professor Dale Barker, Director of the Center for Climate Research Singapore (CCRS) at Met Service Singapore.

In addition, the advancements in supercomputing support Singapore's US$120 million AI initiative for scientific research, announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in October.