CapitaLand Investment (CLI) has recently announced their acquisition of a freehold land parcel in Osaka, Japan, with plans to develop their first data centre in the country. This development will involve an investment of over US$700 million or $944.3 million and has secured 50 MW of power capacity for the project.
CLI has stated that this data centre will be equipped to support artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and will incorporate energy-efficient solutions such as advanced cooling technologies and industry-leading temperature management practices. Additionally, the data centre will prioritize the use of environmentally friendly products with zero ozone depletion potential or a global warming potential (GWP) of less than 100.
According to Manohar Khiatani, senior executive director of CLI responsible for the data centre business, this acquisition fits perfectly with the group’s focus on digital investments and expands their presence in Japan, one of their key markets. Khiatani also points out that Japan’s data centre market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% from 2023 to 2038. With a current capacity of 1.4 gigawatts, Japan is also the largest data centre market in Asia Pacific, outside of China.
The strategic location of the new data centre in Osaka, which is already home to major cloud service providers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, makes it well-positioned to meet the growing demand for data centres in the region. CLI’s managing director of private funds (data centre), Michelle Lee, believes that this demand will continue to rise, surpassing new supply and attracting strong institutional interest in data centre investments. She also notes that CLI has already raised US$600 million for their data centre development funds in Asia since October 2020 and will continue to seek out attractive investment opportunities for their private fund investors.
With this recent acquisition, CLI now has a global portfolio of 23 data centres, with a combined power capacity of 800 MW and approximately $6 billion in assets under management. The CapitaLand Group, of which CLI is a part, now has a total of 27 data centres across Asia and Europe. On 3 February 2021, CLI’s shares closed at $2.42, 4 cents lower or 1.63% down from the previous day.