Japan is planning to invest up to $140 billion over the next five years to expand its artificial intelligence infrastructure through the development of data centres and gas-fired power facilities.
The initiative is being driven by a partnership involving US technology company Dell, Japanese energy giant Jera and UK-based AI infrastructure provider Rhaetian.
The companies are targeting the development of between three and four gigawatts of combined AI data centre and power capacity as Japan seeks to meet rapidly growing demand for AI computing.
The plan was announced alongside an agreement to develop a $15 billion data centre and power facility in Chiba, near Tokyo.
The 400-megawatt project, to be financed by Apollo, is expected to begin operations around 2028 and will operate independently of Japan’s national electricity grid.
Jera Chief Executive Officer Yukio Kani said the partnership would focus on speeding up data centre construction while ensuring sufficient power supplies for AI infrastructure.
“The keyword is speed to power,” Kani said, pointing to Jera’s annual liquefied natural gas trading portfolio of about 35 million tonnes as a potential source of fuel for electricity generation.
Kani estimated that developing one gigawatt of data centre and associated power capacity could cost between $35 billion and $45 billion. At three to four gigawatts, the total investment could therefore reach about $140 billion.
The partners plan to standardise the design and construction of data centres and power facilities to reduce costs and shorten development timelines.
They are also considering replicating the model in other countries as demand for AI infrastructure grows.
The Chiba project forms part of Japan’s broader push to strengthen its position in the global AI infrastructure race and narrow the gap with the United States and China.
Japan is already home to major data centre operators, including NTT Data and SoftBank, while Blackstone has announced a $30 billion investment programme targeting the country’s data centre sector.
However, Japan’s data centre capacity remains significantly smaller than that of the United States and China.
An International Data Center Authority report cited in the report estimated that US data centres consume about 29.2 gigawatts of electricity, accounting for 43 per cent of global data centre consumption. China accounted for 8.5 gigawatts, while Japan had about 1.7 gigawatts.
The Japanese government is targeting ¥32.7 trillion, equivalent to about $206 billion, in combined public and private investment in cloud computing and data centre infrastructure by 2035.
The investment is part of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s strategy to channel capital into sectors regarded as strategically important to Japan’s economic and technological development.
