DayOne deploys Singapore’s first biological data center prototype

A 20-unit biological computing system is now running inside Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Data Center Dynamics reports that DayOne has deployed the city-state’s first biological data center prototype there, in partnership with Cortical Labs and NUS Medicine.

The deployment comes five months after DayOne said it would work with the Australian startup to set up biological computing facilities in Melbourne and Singapore. The unit is a CL1, launched by Cortical Labs in March 2025, sitting in a live research environment hosted by DayOne.

Cortical Labs grows neurons from human stem cells across a silicon chip. The chip sends electrical impulses into the cells, and the cells are wired into the company’s Biological Intelligence Operating System, or biOS. The software runs simulations and reports the simulated environment back to the neurons; their electrical reactions change that environment. An onboard life-support system keeps the cells alive for up to six months.

The CL1 is the successor to DishBrain, a Cortical Labs experiment that put 800,000 human and mouse neurons on a CMOS chip and taught itself to play Pong. The company calls its approach Synthetic Biological Intelligence, which it describes as a more advanced and sustainable form of AI.

Jamie Khoo, DayOne’s CEO, tied the pilot to Singapore’s sustainability goals: “Our commitment to Singapore goes beyond capacity.” The prototype, he said, demonstrates that scaling compute and reducing resource intensity can be pursued together. Hon Weng Chong, Cortical Labs’ founder and CEO, was more direct: the prototype “shifts the conversation from research to commercial application.” Biological computing, he said, “supplements AI in areas where data is sparse, learning from far less and adapting as conditions change.”

Cortical Labs, founded in Melbourne in 2019, has raised $11 million to date, according to Data Center Dynamics. Its investors include Horizons Ventures, Blackbird Ventures, and LifeX Ventures.

A 20-unit pilot is not infrastructure. The number that will decide whether the company gets a second installation is not the neuron count; it is the power bill, and the coverage does not include one. The companies have staked the pitch on efficiency; a live research deployment at a medical school gives them a place to test that claim outside their own lab.

The next milestone is likely the second installation. DayOne and Cortical Labs said five months ago they would establish facilities in Melbourne and Singapore; the article describes one prototype, in a medical school. Whether a second one follows will tell the market more than any launch announcement.