Digital Realty announced it has commenced construction of its third data center at its NRT campus in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture, in Japan. NRT14, an important addition to Digital Realty's global data center platform, PlatformDIGITAL, is expected to open in December 2025 and will significantly increase availability of AI-ready infrastructure capacity in Japan. This announcement follows the recent launch of NRT12 on the same campus, solidifying Digital Realty's commitment to providing customers with best-in-class data center solutions in Japan.

The adoption of new technologies such as AI and big data, driven by digital transformation initiatives, is gaining momentum in Japan. Businesses face the challenge of deploying AI rapidly and at scale while maintaining data security and privacy. This has fueled demand for AI-ready data center infrastructure in the Tokyo metropolitan area, close to business districts and where AI services are being deployed and used.

NRT14, configurable to support private AI deployments, aims to meet this growing demand. It is expected to add up to 31 megawatts (MW) of total IT capacity, bringing the total at the campus to 104MW. Developed by MC Digital Realty, Digital Realty's 50/50 joint venture in Japan with Mitsubishi Corporation, the facility will offer standardized and bespoke configurations to meet the high-density power requirements (up to 70 kilowatts [kW] per rack), cooling infrastructure, and interconnectivity demands of complex AI workloads.

Recognizing the power requirements of AI applications, NRT14 aims to use 100% renewable energy and will feature an innovative air-assisted liquid cooling (AALC) compliant design to decarbonize customers' IT infrastructure and reduce environmental impact. The facility will form part of PlatformDIGITAL, giving customers access to over 1,100 cloud and IT services, 1,200 network services in 25+ countries, 50+ metros, and 300+ data center locations on six continents, enabling real-time data insights to power business innovation and growth. NRT14 will also be ServiceFabric enabled, Digital Realty's orchestration and interconnection platform, to empower customers to centrally manage complex workflows and orchestrate their hybrid IT infrastructure and AI workloads from a single point.

NRT14 will be connected to the other data centers on the NRT campus, including the newly-launched NRT12 which opened in March 2024, through Campus Connect. This high-speed on-campus interconnection service from Digital Realty allows customers to seamlessly access all facilities on a campus to increase their footprint and access other workloads. The modular design of the data centers on the campus will also allow for dynamic scaling of server environments to accommodate complex AI deployments.