LOGO

In this issue, we will first look at the current status and future intentions of the data center business of Japanese companies.

NTT

The company plans to spend more than 1.5 trillion yen over the next five years to expand its data centers. India will be the place where NTT will increase the most, and they plan to increase the number from the current 12 to about 24 by fiscal 2025, where potential demand is expected due to the expansion of major overseas IT companies and population growth. NTT also wants to increase the number of locations in North America from 14 to 23.

Softbank

SoftBank Corp., in collaboration with U.S. semiconductor giant NVIDIA, aims to build a platform for generative artificial intelligence and 5G/6G applications and introduce it to new AI data centers in Japan.

This application is based on NVIDIA chip technology. And to reduce costs and improve energy efficiency, SoftBank plans to build data centers that can host generative AI and wireless applications on a multi-tenant common server platform.

Kansai Electric Power

Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), in partnership with U.S. data center operator CyrusOne, has begun work on developing a data center in Japan with the ambitious goal of achieving a 900 MW operation. the CyrusOne KEP joint venture is a hyperscale platform company Focusing on the development of new data centers specifically tailored to meet demand, the joint venture aims to enhance resiliency, efficiency, and smart development in the industry by linking data center infrastructure with the broader power grid.

In this way, the data center industry of Japanese domestic companies seems to be invigorating and achieving positive growth.

So what is behind this?

Background of the activation of the data center industry

Behind this is the progress of digitization, such as generative AI (Artificial Intelligence). If we become a data-driven society in which decisions are made based on data, data will accumulate at an accelerated pace.

Akira Shimada, president of NTT, which is focusing on the data center business, said, “We want to develop semiconductors that use light (instead of electrons) after 30 years. We will invest 100 billion yen per year in research and development. As a start, we plan to begin manufacturing related components that use light after 2013. In addition to incorporating them into telecommunications equipment and servers, we also aim to apply them to more general electronic devices.” and suggests that the data center business is closely linked to semiconductor development.

Semiconductors that use light will consume far less electricity, which is in line with the times in terms of sustainability.

Junichi Miyagawa, President and CEO of Softbank, said, “We are entering an era of coexistence with AI, data processing, and rapidly increasing demand for electricity. We aim to provide next-generation social infrastructure to support a digitalized society in Japan.

Today, the development of generation AI (Artificial Intelligence) is remarkable. We may be at a turning point, upgrading the services we deploy regarding our growth strategy.