NTT World Information Facilities, a part of Japan’s NTT, is increasing its capability in response to sustained progress in demand for digital infrastructure linked to cloud and AI.
The corporate plans to extend its capability to about 4 gigawatts by way of round 34 tasks, together with a number of the place improvement has begun. Doug Adams, the subsidiary’s CEO, mentioned the enlargement may very well be full inside two years. Additional progress is predicted to take complete capability 5 gigawatts within the subsequent 5 years.
The corporate attributes the explanation for its enlargement to a requirement for extra computing energy and specialised infrastructure. Adams mentioned, “AI demand is predicted to get stronger by the minute, and we’re basically an enabler,” though the corporate doesn’t separate its income derived from AI workloads from cloud computing.
Gross sales at NTT World Information Facilities reached roughly $2.4 billion within the fiscal 12 months ending March 2025, up round 30%. Adams mentioned he expects income progress above 20% yearly, however didn’t state a timeframe. The longer term dedication suggests present capability is basically accounted for. Greater than 70% of the deliberate developments are ‘underneath contract’, though no particulars of those had been made obtainable.
Enlargement can be concentrated in established European and APAC markets. In Frankfurt, the corporate is growing new services to supply 500 MW along with its present 4 information centres. New websites are additionally underneath building in Milan and Osaka, Japan. The corporate says it’s assessing additional alternatives within the Nordic area and elements of South America.
Demand for infrastructure suited to synthetic intelligence workloads has pushed giant capital commitments from expertise corporations, together with a current multi-billion-dollar settlement between Meta and Nebius. NTT World Information Facilities is without doubt one of the largest DC suppliers globally, ranked behind Equinix and Digital Realty.
Finance for the proposed enlargement will comprise of inside revenues and exterior sources, with Adams stating, “we’ve got greater than $3 billion from our personal stability sheet to fund enlargement,” whereas additionally noting that the corporate may match with companions or use funding to assist additional progress.
The necessity for extra funds is apparent if the brand new capability had been to be solely devoted to AI – one thing that is still unclear. In line with Jerome Darling of TD Cowen, the US funding financial institution, AI-specific information centres price round $13 million per megawatt of capability. Thus, offering the shells and surrounding infrastructure for 4GW of services would price $52 billion over the course of the proposed enlargement.
Equipping the services with right this moment’s GPU racks and related infrastructure (cooling, networking, and many others.), priced by the identical supply at $30m per megawatt, comes with a invoice of $120 billion. Nonetheless, the price of succeeding generations of GPU racks seems to be more likely to improve that determine: The present DGX B200 rack retails at c. $500,000, and the reported pricing for subsequent era of AI compute, the GB200 NVL72 rack, stands at $3m per unit.
NTT made $10.45 billion in pre-tax earnings [PDF] within the monetary 12 months 2024-2025. 4 gigawatts of knowledge centre-based IT load represents greater than 4 occasions London’s present DC capability.
NTT World Information Facilities at the moment operates greater than 150 DC services in 20 international locations. Its enlargement plans recommend a requirement for capability that, if realised, will considerably develop its enterprise and probably, its liabilities. Any progress in demand will, after all, rely on broader financial and technological components.
(Picture supply: “NTT DoCoMo Yoyogi Constructing 2009 cropped” by NTT_DoCoMo_Yoyogi_Building_2009.jpg: Wiiii by-product work: 0607crp (speak) is licensed underneath CC BY-SA 3.0.)
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