The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has allocated P300 million in seed funding to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) data center capacity, launching a broader strategy to scale its computing power 26-fold by 2028.
Dr. Franz De Leon, director of the DOST-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI), revealed the allocation during a House Committee on Appropriations hearing regarding the agency’s proposed P30.8-billion budget. The disclosure came in response to inquiries from ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio regarding the financial requirements of the agency’s multi-year AI roadmap.
“For now, the initial seed funding given by DOST through its GIA [Grants-in-Aid] is at P300 million,” De Leon said, noting that the agency aims to secure additional support from international development partners to sustain the expansion.
De Leon underscored the necessity of the upgrade, highlighting the limitations of ASTI’s current infrastructure.
“Currently, we have a small data center—it’s just a container van at the back of our office, it’s that small,” De Leon explained.
To bridge current operational demands while permanent infrastructure is developed, ASTI has started leasing space in commercial data centers to host its own graphics processing units (GPUs) and storage infrastructure. The facility currently runs five primary computer servers alongside supporting storage nodes.
According to De Leon, expanding local computing infrastructure is critical to ensuring national sovereignty in emerging technologies, allowing the government to develop and deploy home-grown AI tools securely.
“Our intent is to further enhance our own sovereignty, so we will have our own capacity to deploy and make our own AI-based applications using our own system,” he said.