NTT Global Data Centers Breaks Ground on 36MW Osaka Campus

NTT Global Data Centers has begun construction of a 36-megawatt Osaka hyperscale campus, according to a statement this week.

A groundbreaking ceremony at the site in Ibaraki City, 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) north of central Osaka, took place on 1 October, NTT GDC said Wednesday in a LinkedIn post. The first of two buildings, with a capacity of 18MW, is expected to be completed by early 2028.

The digital infrastructure arm of the Japanese telecom giant first announced the project in May of this year, aiming to take advantage of Osaka’s status as one of the fastest-growing data centre markets in Asia Pacific. The campus is being built in what NTT GDC calls “a low-risk disaster zone” and is positioned as a backup in the event of a catastrophe in the Tokyo area.

“The data centre is designed to support AI, cloud computing, and next-gen digital services, featuring direct liquid cooling and a strong commitment to sustainable energy,” the company said. “Designed for hyperscalers, it will seamlessly extend the capabilities of existing NTT Group data centres.”

Powering Kansai’s Growth

The first building of the campus, dubbed Osaka North 1 Data Center, is designed as a three-storey, seismically isolated structure with 5,000 square metres (53,820 square feet) of rack space.

The facility will be equipped with power, air conditioning and communications equipment in line with Tier 3 standards, which require redundant and dual-powered servers, network links and other components. It can also be used as an expansion site for NTT data centres in the Kansai region already in use by customers, the company said.

In announcing the project in May, NTT GDC’s executive vice president for Asia Pacific, Yasuo Suzuki, touted Osaka North’s globally standardised design combining the latest technology with environmental considerations.

“Through this facility, we will support the growth strategies of companies in the Kansai region and contribute to the development of the local economy by encouraging foreign companies to enter the market,” Suzuki said.

Investing in Scale

While data centre investment in Japan hasn’t matched the surge of commitments in the Southeast Asian hotspots of Malaysia and Thailand, developed megacities like Tokyo and Osaka still offer investors the advantages of scale and an abundance of clients, according to speakers at a Mingtiandi event last month.

With 1.6 gigawatts of live IT capacity, Japan remains Asia Pacific’s largest ex-China data centre market and a major growth hub for hyperscalers, cloud infrastructure and AI inference, Suzuki said during the APAC Data Centre Forum.

“Around Tokyo or even Osaka, there will be some limitations over supply of power, so that is the challenge,” Suzuki told MTD TV. “But as long as we have the power, capacity will be easy to sell in Tokyo and Osaka.”