Australian biological computing startup Cortical Labs has partnered with Singaporean data center operator DayOne to establish two data centers in Melbourne, Australia, and Singapore.

Powered by Cortical Labs' CL1 biological computers, the facilities have been designed to process information using what the company calls “wetware,” lab-cultivated neurons that grow across traditional silicon chips.

Built around neurological networks, Cortical Labs said the data centers will require only a “fraction of the energy” used by digital systems, as the brain-like networks can “learn and adapt in ways conventional computing struggles to replicate.”

The partnership will see DayOne provide the capital and strategic input for the project, with the Singaporean data center expected to house up to 1,000 units, deployed in phases.

By comparison, the unnamed facility in Melbourne will comprise 120 CL1 units, and Cortical Labs will also work with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore to deploy 20 CL1 units, operating an initial validation phase.

The company’s CL1 biological computers run on just 30W, a significant decrease from traditional silicon GPUs, which can require up to 600W, “dramatically reducing” the electricity and cooling demands of AI compute.

Launched in March 2025, Cortical Labs’ CL1 system combines neurons cultivated from human stem cells with silicon to create what the company says is a “more advanced and sustainable form of AI,” a neural network dubbed Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI). Once cultivated, the neurons grow across the silicon chip, which sends and receives electrical impulses into the neural structure, before being integrated into Cortical Labs’ Biological Intelligence Operating System (biOS), which is capable of running simulations.

The operating system is able to send information directly to the neurons about their environment, and as they react, their impulses affect their simulated world. The neurons can then be kept alive for up to six months with the CL1’s internal life support system.

“AI capacity is accelerating faster than most people realize, and everyone is talking about chips, models, and megawatts,” said Hon Weng Chong, MD, founder and CEO, Cortical Labs. “But far fewer are talking about the environmental and resource hazards that sit underneath this growth: the power constraints, the water trade-offs, and the sustainability risk if we simply build more of the same. The bio data center is our proof-of-concept that there’s another path. Computing that’s biologically inspired, dramatically more efficient, and designed for the world we’re actually living in.”

Founded in Melbourne in 2019, to date, Cortical Labs has secured $11 million in funding, with investors including Horizons Ventures, Blackbird Ventures, LifeX Ventures, Radar Ventures, and the CIA's In-Q-Tel.

The CL1 is an upgraded version of a biological computer previously demonstrated by Cortical Labs, then known as DishBrain. That version contained 800,000 human and mouse neurons on a CMOS chip and taught itself to play Pong.