GCI president and CEO Scott Peterson
US banking giant Goldman Sachs is lined up for its first data centre project in Asia after announcing a joint venture this week for a 120MW facility in Japan’s Fukuoka prefecture.
The investment bank’s Global Compute Infrastructure (GCI) division said in a joint statement with Hong Kong-based fund manager Asia Pacific Land that the two companies have partnered for development of a facility in the city of Kitakyushu – one hour north of Fukuoka on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu – with construction due to start next year.
“We are very excited to collaborate with APL to launch this significant, market-changing initiative,” GCI President and CEO Scott Peterson said in a statement. “Together, we are leveraging our expertise to establish an innovative data center hub that will serve the needs of the world’s most demanding data center customers across a range of deployment sizes and needs.”
The 60MW first phase is scheduled to become operational following full connection of the committed power supply in September 2027, with the project designed for a capacity of 120 megawatts when completed.
Expanding into Asia
Global Compute and Asia Pacific Land announced the joint venture at the PTC 25 telecom conference in Hawaii, with construction slated for a 15.5 acre (6.28 hectare) site which the Hong Kong firm had purchased from the Kitakyushu city government in November 2023.
Rendering of APL’s Fukuoka DC Campus 1 (Image: APL)
The partners said they have secured additional land and power resources that allow for development of a total of 250MW of capacity in Fukuoka Prefecture by 2029.
The Kitakyushu project is Global Compute’s first investment in Asia since Goldman Sachs co-founded the company with former Digital Realty CIO Scott Peterson in 2020.
The Japan deal adds a third major region for Global Compute after the company in 2022 teamed up with Latin American infrastructure firm Data Horizons Americas and Columbian investor Southern Cross Group to establish Latin America-focused data centre platform Data Horizon Americas.
In 2020 the Goldman unit acquired Poland-based data centre platform Atman (formerly ATM) after the investment bank committed $500 million in equity to its digital infrastructure venture.
The Island Less Travelled
“We are thrilled to work with GCI to realize our vision of creating a new data center hub in Kyushu,” said Yoshinobu Takahara, chief investment officer for Asia at APL. “This project is about more than infrastructure; it represents a commitment to continue working with the local and national government to position Kyushu as a critical player in Japan’s continued digital transformation by creating technology-related jobs and stimulating the local economy.”
The Kitakyushu project will be Asia Pacific Land’s second data centre in a portfolio dominated by commercial assets, with the firm noting on their website that it has been targeting digital infrastructure opportunities in northern Kyushu since 2021, with a goal of making the area a leading international data centre hub for Asia Pacific.
In announcing the joint venture, Global Compute aligned with its partner’s aim of fostering a digital infrastructure hub on southern Japan’s largest island.
“In particular we will be uniquely positioned to meet the largest, most dense AI and hyperscale needs in the market,” Global Compute’s Peterson said. “As other markets throughout Japan and the Asia-Pacific region face increasing challenges, Kyushu will emerge as a highly desirable data center option not only within Japan but also as a strategic gateway for regional deployments.”
Asia Pacific Land announced plans for construction of its first data centre project last month, a 300MW facility in the Fukuoka prefecture city of Itoshima, which the company expects to develop at a cost of JPY 300 billion ($2 billion). Financial details for the Kitakyushu project were not released.
In May 2023, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry identified areas in Kyushu and Hokkaido as possible third and fourth data centre core hubs for development beyond Tokyo and Osaka. While acknowledging the southern island’s advantages in land and power availability, industry analysts indicated that development of digital infrastructure in the Fukuoka area could be a long road.
“There’s definitely been some supply activity here and the smallest signs of demand as well, but at the moment it’s still too early to really determine how successful the development of the submarket will be, at least for the near future,” Jingwen Ong, Asia Pacific research manager with data centre information provider DC Byte told Mingtiandi.
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