Japan backs $140bn plan for AI data centres with Dell and Jera

In short: Japan is planning a large expansion of AI-focused data centres, including a $15bn site near Tokyo led by Dell, Jera, and Rhaelm.

What happened

Japan is aiming to speed up the building of data centres, which are large buildings full of computers that run online services. These computers also do the heavy work needed for modern AI systems.

A group of three companies, Dell, Jera, and UK-based AI infrastructure provider Rhaelm, agreed to develop a $15bn data centre near Tokyo. The planned site is in Chiba prefecture and is sized at 400 megawatts, which would make it one of Asia’s biggest AI data centre projects outside China. The project is expected to be financed by Apollo.

Jera’s CEO Yukio Kani said the partners want to build 3 to 4 gigawatts of AI data centres and related gas power infrastructure within five years. He said the priority is getting electricity quickly, since data centres need a steady, very large power supply. The Chiba project is planned to start operating around 2028 and it will not be connected to Japan’s power grid, meaning it is expected to have its own dedicated power source.

Japan already has major data centre operators such as NTT Data and SoftBank. Still, it is far behind the US and China in data centre power use, with one report putting Japan at 1.7 gigawatts, compared with 29.2 gigawatts in the US and 8.5 gigawatts in China.

Why it matters

As more services use AI, demand is rising for places that can host huge amounts of computing power. Japan’s plan shows how countries and companies are competing to secure enough electricity and space for these facilities, since whoever can build them faster can attract more AI work and investment.

Source: Financial Times