{"text":[[{"start":10.15,"text":"Japan is aiming to speed up data centre development with a $140bn investment scheme leveraging its powerful gas trading company in a bid to become the world’s largest AI infrastructure hub outside the US and China."}],[{"start":23.8,"text":"A trio of companies, including Dell and Jera, the world’s largest gas trader, agreed on Thursday to develop a $15bn, 400-megawatt data centre near Tokyo that will be Asia’s largest AI data centre project outside China. The project will be financed by Apollo."}],[{"start":39.2,"text":"Yukio Kani, global chief executive of Jera, told the FT that the three companies would aim to develop 3 to 4 gigawatts of AI data centres and gas power infrastructure within five years."}],[{"start":51.550000000000004,"text":"“The keyword is speed to power,” he said, citing its portfolio of 35mn tonnes of liquefied natural gas traded annually that can fire power stations. “If you see Asia outside China, Japan is a major data centre market.”"}],[{"start":66.45,"text":"He estimated 1 gigawatt costs $35bn to $45bn, implying an overall cost of $140bn to build that level of infrastructure."}],[{"start":76.25,"text":"The initiative adds to a growing arms race globally to accelerate the development of data centres and create hubs outside the US and China for AI computing power."}],[{"start":85.65,"text":"The three partners, including UK-based AI infrastructure provider Rhaelm, aim to standardise the construction of data centres and power infrastructure to speed up development and lower costs. They may also build data centres and power stations outside Japan."}],[{"start":103.2,"text":"The $15bn data centre and power plant in Chiba, the neighbouring prefecture to Tokyo, will start operations around 2028 and will not be connected to the grid."}],[{"start":114.75,"text":"Japan is home to large data centre operators such as NTT Data and SoftBank, while Blackstone plans its own $30bn push in Japan over the coming years. However, the country still lags far behind both the US and China in data centre capacity. "}],[{"start":132.35,"text":"According to an International Data Center Authority report this year, US data centres consume 29.2 gigawatts of electricity, accounting for 43 per cent of global data centre consumption, compared with 8.5 gigawatts in China and just 1.7 gigawatts in Japan."}],[{"start":151.29999999999998,"text":"The Japanese government is targeting ¥32.7tn ($206bn) of public-private investment in cloud computing and data centre infrastructure by 2035 as part of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s plan to invest in strategically important sectors."}],[{"start":177.54999999999998,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790851602_6451.mp3"}