Summary

  • Parliament passed the Digital Infrastructure Bill on 7 October, but the three thresholds in its licensing design do not form a single size ladder.
  • A 3 MW data-centre test, a 10 MW facility-service test and a three-year cloud-revenue test point to different duties; key calculation guidance and the start date remain matters to watch.

One bill, three different measuring sticks

The tempting shortcut is to ask whether a data centre is “large enough” for Singapore’s new rules. That question has no single answer. The Digital Infrastructure Bill, passed by Parliament on 7 October according to CNA, sets up two licensing regimes and uses three numerical tests to draw different boundaries within them.

The first boundary is broad. The Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) says data-centre operators with critical IT load of at least 3 megawatts must apply for a data-centre licence. This is the sustainability route: the government’s stated aim is to raise environmental standards as the sector grows under land and resource constraints. The published Bill defines critical IT load by the maximum electrical capacity a data centre is designed to supply to its hosted IT and network equipment.

It also contains specific statutory exclusions, so the headline threshold is not a substitute for checking the operator and facility against the text.

The resilience regime has a narrower data-centre boundary. MDDI’s Bill summary sets a 10 MW critical-IT-load test for major co-location and cloud data-centre services. The service must be used to serve parties unrelated to the facility operator. The relevant question is therefore not only how much power the facility can support, but what service it provides and to whom. A 10 MW line should not be treated as a generic licence trigger for every site without that service test.

Cloud providers face a separate route. The Bill summary identifies Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service providers whose Singapore-user revenue averages at least S$100 million a year across the three preceding years. Software-as-a-Service is excluded from that threshold. A provider’s scale is measured by a revenue history and customer attribution, not by the megawatt capacity of one building.

Those tests can overlap. A data-centre operator may need to assess the sustainability licence and, if the service and scale conditions are met, the major foundational digital infrastructure (FDI) resilience licence as well. The thresholds are different perimeters around different risks, not successive levels of one licence.

The cloud test follows the service across borders

The geographic boundary also matters. The Bill’s text says the major-FDI licensing provisions can apply when a provider supplies a covered service from inside or outside Singapore to users in Singapore, or supplies it wholly or partly from Singapore to users elsewhere. The Bill defines a Singapore user using residence for individuals and registration or incorporation criteria for business entities; it expressly contemplates an entity registered even if incorporated overseas. Corporate domicile alone is therefore not a reliable shortcut for a provider’s scoping exercise.

The public-consultation outcome shows why the arithmetic is not yet self-executing. Respondents asked how cloud revenue would be calculated, including gross versus net treatment and attribution to Singapore users, and how critical IT load would be determined. MDDI and IMDA said they would provide implementation information ahead of commencement, consult affected providers and operators, and consider publishing application guidance. The government also expects to consult industry on later regulations and Codes of Practice.

Passage is not an operating date

Parliamentary passage is a material step, but it does not by itself tell operators when every licensing duty starts. The Attorney-General’s Chambers explains that a Bill becomes an Act only after presidential assent. The text published as Bill No. 20/2026 says the Digital Infrastructure Act 2026 comes into operation on a date appointed by the Minister through a Gazette notification. These are separate status questions: passage, assent, and commencement.

For now, an operator’s useful preparation is a perimeter map, not a guessed compliance date. Record the facility’s design critical IT load; identify whether it hosts or provides services for unrelated parties; separate colocation, cloud and SaaS offers; and build a three-year revenue view with a defensible Singapore-user method. Then track the official assent and commencement notices, IMDA’s measurement guidance, the detailed Codes, and transition arrangements. An announced threshold becomes operationally meaningful through its definitions, records and start date.

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