Blackstone-backed AirTrunk is adding $1 billion to its Inzai campus. The upgrade targets artificial intelligence workloads in Japan.
TOKYO — AirTrunk, the data centre operator backed by Blackstone, said Wednesday it is investing an additional $1 billion in its hyperscale campus in Inzai, in eastern Japan, to support artificial intelligence workloads. The campus has a capacity of more than 300 megawatts, according to Reuters.
The company said the money will go toward deploying liquid-cooling technology, which is used to manage the heat generated by AI computing equipment. The campus, known as TOK1, has traditionally hosted cloud computing services. AirTrunk chief executive Robin Khuda said it is likely to become the first campus in Japan to run AI workloads on a large scale. The company also said it has secured a $1 billion green loan led by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, MUFG Bank and United Overseas Bank, among other lenders.
Khuda said geopolitical factors are leading more customers to consider Japan as a North Asian location for their computing needs. He also said deploying AI infrastructure is becoming harder in the United States and is already difficult in Europe, which he expects to benefit Asia significantly. Those views are the chief executive’s and were not independently assessed in the report.
Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, known as CPP Investments, agreed in 2024 to acquire AirTrunk at an implied enterprise value of more than 24 billion Australian dollars, about $16 billion at the time. The transaction was described as the largest data centre acquisition globally. AirTrunk, founded in 2015 and based in Sydney, operates data centres in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Information for this report came from Reuters, with background from Blackstone and CPP Investments announcements and reporting by The Canadian Press.