SINGAPORE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Terence Quek, Benjamin Cheong and Favian Tan, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP
equity, infrastructure funds, sovereign wealth funds and REITs. In November 2025, it was announced that a data cen- tre test bed will be established on Singapore’s Jurong Island to enable researchers and operators to pilot the use of green technologies for energy-intensive facili- ties. This initiative follows an earlier announcement regarding Singapore’s largest low-carbon data centre park, which will be situated on a 20-hectare site on the industrial island, or an area equivalent to approxi- mately 25 football fields. The pilot-scale data centre will utilise sustainable energy sources such as solar power and biofuels, and is designed to accommodate the high computing demands associated with AI. Several structural and policy factors have supported the rise in data centre M&A and investment in Singa- pore, including the following. • Strategic connectivity: Extensive subsea cable landings, low-latency regional access and carrier- neutral ecosystems position Singapore as South- east Asia’s gateway for cloud, fintech and data- intensive services. • Policy frameworks: The Digital Connectivity Blue- print and the Green Data Centre Roadmap pri- oritise resilient, secure and sustainable compute infrastructure, including an orchestrated roadmap for “green data centres”. • Sustainability-linked capacity allocation: Singa- pore’s data centre regime, following the end of an earlier moratorium on new data centres, ties approvals to stringent efficiency and sustainability metrics, favouring well-capitalised operators and driving technology upgrades. In line with this, Sin- gapore released a new green data centre standard, SS 715:2025: Energy Efficiency of Data Centre IT Equipment, in August 2025, which aims to reduce IT equipment energy consumption by setting mini- mum energy efficiency levels and providing best practices for IT energy management. • Stable regulatory and legal environment: Strong rule of law, data protection and cybersecurity frameworks, and ease of doing business make Sin- gapore a preferred location for regulated industries.
Despite land, power and sustainability constraints, Singapore’s digital infrastructure and data centre M&A market is expected to continue its growth, charac- terised by high investor interest, disciplined capac- ity growth and sustainability-led policy. Singapore’s role as Southeast Asia’s interconnection and regula- tory hub, combined with accelerating AI and cloud demand, continues to draw substantial capital to both platform acquisitions and development. Fintech An increasing demand for fintech has fuelled M&A activity by pushing institutions to acquire innovative technology, expand product offerings, reach new customer segments, achieve cost efficiencies and eliminate competition. This demand comes from both consumers and businesses seeking better, faster and more personalised digital financial services. Fintech was a central catalyst for M&A activity in Sin- gapore in 2025. Singapore’s ecosystem saw a shift in 2025 towards strategic, capability-driven deals, par- ticularly in payments, AI-enabled solutions and digital assets infrastructure. KPMG reported that Singapore’s fintech investment rebounded in the first half of 2025 with just over USD1 billion deployed across 90 deals. Incumbent banks, regional super apps, telcos and payment networks accelerated bolt-ons in payments orchestration, cross-border rails, embedded finance and AI risk tools. In May 2025, the Singapore-headquartered global payments and financial platform Airwallex announced its completion of a USD300 million Series F funding round at a USD6.2 billion valuation, with investors that included Square Peg, DST Global, Lone Pine Capital, Blackbird, Airtree, Salesforce Ventures and several leading pension funds in Australia. One of the key factors driving Singapore’s growth in fintech has been the clarity provided by the more focused development of the fintech regulatory regime, which includes the following recent developments: • the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued an AI Model Risk Management Paper for financial institutions in December 2024, setting out good practices for AI and generative AI model risk man-
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