Digital Realty has broken ground on a new data center outside Tokyo, Japan.
Construction work is underway on what will be the third data center at the NRT campus in Inzai, Chiba prefecture.
The new 31MW facility, known as NRT14, is expected to open in December 2025.
Developed by MC Digital Realty, Digital Realty's joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation, the new facility will be configurable to support private AI deployments at densities up to 70kW per rack via air-assisted liquid cooling.
"The addition of NRT14 to our NRT campus will further our ability to deliver robust and flexible AI-ready data center environments to support customers' digital transformation and innovation goals,” said Kosei Hatakeyama, representative director and CEO of MC Digital Realty. “The construction demonstrates our commitment to the continued development of our NRT campus to ensure we are meeting the ever-evolving needs of our customers and the broader industry in Japan."
Serene Nah, managing director and head of Asia Pacific for Digital Realty, added: "Japan's rapidly increasing demand for AI deployments creates the need for scalable, flexible, and highly connected AI-ready data centers in the Tokyo metropolitan area. We believe NRT14's next-generation data center infrastructure and Digital Realty's connected global open data center platform provide the foundational pillars our customers need to drive innovation in the coming years."
MCDR acquired the land for the Inzai City campus in 2019 and has been building it out ever since. NRT14 will take total campus capacity to 104MW. The second facility at the campus, NRT12, launched in March 2024.
Digital set up MC Digital Realty, a 50/50 JV with Mitsubishi Corporation, in 2017. As part of the deal, Digital Realty’s existing data center in Saito, Osaka, and Mitsubishi’s Mitako facility in Tokyo were transferred to the JV, and it now operates nine data centers in Tokyo and Osaka.
In its most recent quarterly earnings, Digital said the joint venture closed on the acquisition of five acres of land in Osaka which could support the development of up to 18MW of IT load, for approximately JPY1 billion ($7m).
Digital Realty and Mitsubishi Corporation recently launched a new JV in the US, where they will fund the construction of two data centers in Dallas, Texas.
