NTT Data nears Anthropic Osaka data center deal

NTT Data Group is in final-stage negotiations with Anthropic to build a data center in Osaka prefecture that could cost up to 1 trillion yen, about $6.3 billion. The planned facility would have power capacity of up to 500 megawatts and would be Anthropic's first dedicated data center in Japan. The companies aim to reach an agreement by the end of NTT's fiscal 2026 in March 2027, with partial operations possible as early as 2028. Because securing that much grid power could take time, the early phase may rely on on-site generation and fuel cells; the deal remains unfinalized. NTT Data Group is the world's third-largest data center operator by market share, with combined capacity exceeding 1,600 MW. Japan has a government target of mobilising 32.7 trillion yen in data center, cloud and storage battery investment by fiscal 2035. Separate plans include a 500 MW facility in Akita prefecture at an estimated 2 trillion yen and an about 850 billion yen, 350 MW facility in Kagoshima prefecture. Contested: none identified. Next is a possible agreement by March 2027 and partial operations from 2028.