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ESR Group, Asia's largest real estate fund manager in terms of assets under management, has formed a joint venture with US data center operator CloudHQ to jointly develop a US$2 billion data center in Japan.
The two companies said in a joint statement on Thursday that they will jointly build, renovate and operate the data center in Nankokita, Osaka. The project will provide 130 megawatts (MW) of data center capacity in three phases, with the first phase due to be commissioned in June.
Stuart Gibson, co-founder and co-CEO of ESR, said in a statement: “This collaboration demonstrates the unique competitive advantages of ESR's multi-model data center platform, which can provide sufficient flexibility to meet the diverse needs of customers.
Japan is one of several countries in Asia where real estate managers, private equity firms and technology giants have rushed to try to capitalize on soaring demand for data centers amid the artificial intelligence boom. Last year, Microsoft said it would invest $2.9 billion in Japan over two years to expand cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure, its largest investment ever in the country. Previously, Amazon Web Services invested US$15 billion in plans to expand cloud computing infrastructure in Japan by 2027.
Other companies doubling down on investments in Japanese data centers include Gaw Capital Partners, a Hong Kong real estate private equity firm controlled by the billionaire Gaw family. Last year, Gaw Capital acquired Japan's Fuchu Intelligence Pak's data center land area for an undisclosed sum, doubling its total area.
ESR's Osaka project is one of four data centers it is developing in Japan. Others include the 100MW data center in Kyoto, and the 60MW and 30MW projects in Tokyo.
ESR said it is Asia's largest real estate investment management company, with $154 billion in assets under management as of June last year. In December, the Hong Kong-listed company said it had received a $7 billion private offer from a consortium including U.S. private equity giants Starwood Capital Group and Warburg Pincus. Warburg Pincus).
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