JERA, Dell, and Raelum sign a memorandum of understanding to build a $15 billion data center in Java Prefecture, Japan

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seol Won-tae = Three companies, including Japan's largest power generation company JERA, Dell, and UK-based AI infrastructure developer Rhaelm, signed a memorandum of understanding on the 1st to invest $15 billion to build a 400 megawatt (MW) data center in Java Prefecture near Tokyo.

The Financial Times (FT) reported that JERA's global CEO Yukio Kani said in an interview with the company that the company aims to build a data center and gas power generation infrastructure of 3 to 4 gigawatts (GW) within five years.

“The problem is the speed of power supply,” CEO Carney said, citing the example of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading portfolio of 35 million tons per year, which can supply fuel to this gas power plant.

He estimated the construction cost per GW at $35 billion to $45 billion.

According to the memorandum of understanding, JERA will provide land and power, and Dell will provide server racks. Raelm is responsible for data center construction under the financial support of Apollo Global Management.

The 400 MW data center being built in Java Prefecture and the power generation facility that supplies power to this data center are scheduled to be operational around 2028. It is not connected to the existing power grid.

The three companies are seeking to standardize the construction of data centers and power infrastructure to speed up development and lower costs. They are also considering building data centers and power generation facilities outside of Japan.

There are large data center operators in Japan such as NTT Data and Softbank, and Blackstone is also pursuing an investment plan worth $30 billion in Japan in the future.

According to this year's report by the International Data Center Association (IDCA), the power consumption of U.S. data centers is 29.2GW, accounting for 43% of global data center power consumption. China has 8.5GW and Japan has only 1.7GW.