Singapore’s Singtel to boost spending as telecom major eyes AI services,

Southeast Asia’s largest telecom operator, Singtel, expects to boost its capital expenditure to around 3 billion Singapore dollars in its current fiscal year, up from S$2.5 billion from a year earlier, with a majority marked for AI and data center growth.

“1.2 billion are really earmarked for growth into data center into AI, which is our GPU as a service for the region, and in particular providing sovereign AI services for Singapore,” Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” Thursday.

The company’s shares were down over 4% despite strong earnings. The Singaporean telecom operator reported net profit for the year ended March rose 40% to S$5.61 billion, supported by one-off gains of S$2.84 billion, primarily owed to its stake sale in Indian telecom company Bharti Airtel.

Singtel, which sold 0.8% share in Airtel in November last year, bringing its stake to 27.5%, sees huge potential in the Indian market. “We do believe in India, that is a very big country, growing economy, and they would need digital services, not just digital connectivity,” Yuen said.

“We have a local partner in India, in Airtel, and that’s Sunil Bharti Mittal, and he both, between himself and Singtel, we actually are the biggest shareholder of Airtel,” Yuen said, adding that over the long term, the Singaporean telecom operator will seek to equalize stakes between Sunil and Singtel.

Singtel expects limited impact from the Middle East conflict, citing its lack of direct exposure to the region. However, the company reckons there could be some secondary impact “in the form of inflationary pressure resulting in higher operating costs, softer consumer and business spending and slower economic growth.”

“This will affect the Group’s foreign exchange risk stemming from volatility in the regional currencies where it operates, further impacting translated earnings,” Singtel said in its latest earnings release.

Singtel’s core capital expenditure is expected to remain stable at around S$1.8 billion, which includes A$1.5 billion marked for its Australian regional associate Optus and S$0.5 billion for the rest of the group, according to the company.