The AI boom helped Singapore-based asset manager and operator Keppel post rising 2024 profits, as companies flocked to build more data centers to power AI services.
Keppel reported a 2024 net profit from continuing operations of 1.06 billion Singapore dollars ($783.7 million), up 5% from the year before. Profits at the firm’s connectivity arm, which handles its data centers, surged 45% to reach 184 million Singapore dollars ($136 million), making up 17% of Keppel’s annual profit.
Keppel, ranked No. 72 on the Southeast Asia 500, got its start in 1968 as a shipyard operator, taking over repair operations from the departing British Royal Navy. It has since evolved to a diversified conglomerate with business in property and infrastructure, and in 2023 embarked on a plan to become a global asset manager with interests in renewable energy, digital connectivity, and urban development.
“2024 was a pivotal year for Keppel as it marked the first year of our transformation from a diverse conglomerate into a global asset manager and operator,” said the company’s CEO Loh Chin Hua in a prepared address.
All three of the company’s new segments–infrastructure, real estate, and connectivity–were profitable last year. Infrastructure, the largest segment, contributed 63% of the company’s net profit, excluding its legacy offshore and marine assets.
Yet connectivity is Keppel’s fastest growing segment, and the only one that reported a growth in profits in 2024. Demand for data centers is booming as both companies and corporations try to leverage the boom in generative AI, and the greater need for computing power. Data centers provide the memory storage infrastructure and computing power for these increasingly complex AI models.
Keppel owns and operates 35 colocation data centers in cities like Singapore, Sydney, Jakarta, Guangzhou, and Frankfurt.
The company is also entering the subsea cable systems business, getting a license from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission last month to build the first subsea cable system that directly connects Singapore and the western coast of North America. The system, which spans 20,000 kilometers, is expected to be deployed in the second half of the year. Keppel is also pursuing two additional cable systems connecting Southeast Asia to the rest of the region.
