Singapore-headquartered data centre developer DayOne and Melbourne-based biological computing startup Cortical Labs have announced a strategic partnership to develop Singapore’s first major biological data centre.
The partnership, announced on Tuesday, marks the first deployment of “wetware” computing in a bio data centre, a facility which uses living biological neurons grown from stem cells instead of silicon chips, outside of Australia.
In a joint statement, the companies said that the brain-inspired organoids are significantly more energy-efficient, potentially powering AI workloads on a fraction of the electricity required by conventional data centres.
“Singapore is raising the bar for sustainable data centre growth, and the market is responding with new approaches, beyond just bigger builds,” said Jamie Khoo, CEO of DayOne, in a statement.
“Partnering with Cortical Labs allows us to explore a new compute paradigm that complements Singapore’s and the region’s sustainability-led trajectory, supporting continued innovation while staying aligned to evolving efficiency and greener-energy expectations,” Khoo added.
Under the deal, DayOne will provide capital and strategic input, while Cortical Labs will lead the development of a wetware computing prototype.
The project will also collaborate with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) to cultivate the biological neurons.
The collaboration will focus on benchmarking wetware performance, establishing governance and biosafety standards, and integrating the technology into conventional data center environments.
Initial deployment will involve a single rack of 20 Cortical Cloud units at NUS, with a view to expanding to a full-scale DayOne commercial data centre in Singapore. The partners envision a phased expansion that could see up to 1,000 biological compute units deployed in Singapore, pending regulatory approvals and technical validation.
“Singapore has made it clear that the next chapter of digital infrastructure must be built with sustainability at the core. AI is moving from novelty to necessity across every sector, but the region’s energy and water realities are forcing a reckoning. This partnership is about giving policymakers and industry a practical alternative: a sustainable pathway to AI adoption that aims to decouple compute growth from a resource footprint,” said Hon Weng Chong, founder & CEO, Cortical Labs.
The collaboration comes as Singapore expands data centre capacity under tighter sustainability guardrails. The government is making at least 200 MW of new capacity in the DC-CFA-2 zone available while enforcing higher standards for energy efficiency and greener energy pathways under the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s Green Data Center Roadmap.
For DayOne, the Singapore bio data centre initiative comes amid its own expansion and capital-raising efforts. Reports since last year indicate the company, affiliated with China’s GDS Holdings, is targeting up to $5 billion in a US IPO. It also raised more than $2 billion in a funding round in January 2025, proceeds earmarked for hyperscale campuses across Singapore, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Europe.
