Singtel stated that the company is largely unaffected by the fallout related to Nvidia, with only a small portion of its data center computing resources leased to new cloud customers that may be connected to the chipmaker.
Group Chief Financial Officer Arthur Lang said in an interview on Friday: "I think the impact on us is fairly limited." He also said that Singtel is closely monitoring the related situation.
Lang revealed that less than 5% of the company's data center capacity is leased to new cloud customers that could be linked to Nvidia.
More than 80% of its data center resources are located in Singapore, with tenants primarily consisting of enterprises, banks, and government agencies.
As demand for artificial intelligence and enterprise cloud services climbs, Singtel continues to ramp up its digital infrastructure business. Lang said the company adopts a steady and prudent expansion strategy, prioritizing investment in projects with secured customer contracts, with funding sourced from its own balance sheet and bank financing.
Benefiting from solid first-half fundamentals in its Australian business, technology services, and digital infrastructure segments, the company raised its full-year profit expectations. It now expects core operating profit to achieve mid-to-high single-digit growth for the fiscal year ending March 2027, compared with previous guidance of low-to-mid single-digit growth.
Following the results, Singtel's shares listed on the Singapore Exchange surged by about 3% at one point, marking their largest single-day gain since August this year.
For the half-year period ending September, the company's underlying net profit rose 10% year-on-year to S$1.49 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion). Reported net profit fell 55% to S$1.54 billion, mainly because the same period last year included one-off gains from the disposal of Bharti Airtel shares and the Intouch-Gulf merger, with no comparable gains recorded this period.
Singtel's growth is increasingly relying on businesses outside its home market, including Australian telecom subsidiary Optus, technology services entity NCS, and its continuously expanding data center and AI infrastructure operations; the company also holds stakes in several leading Asian telecom operators.
Optus benefited from higher mobile tariffs and growth in prepaid users, with mobile service revenue rising 2.9%.
NCS also performed well, with its homeland security business continuing to expand and demand rebounding for AI and digital resilience-related projects.
Its Digital InfraCo segment benefited from rising prosperity in the data center business and expansion of AI cloud operations.
Competition in Singapore's domestic market remains intense, with mobile service revenue declining 1.6% year-on-year.
Singtel said in its announcement: "The inflationary environment and weaker regional currencies mean challenges remain ahead. The group will strictly adhere to execution discipline and cost control, operating steadily in a complex environment."
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