Digital Realty launched its NRT14 data center in Inzai City, Japan, marking the third facility at its Narita (NRT) campus and bringing total campus IT capacity close to 100 MW. Developed through its joint venture MC Digital Realty with Mitsubishi Corporation, the new site targets high-density AI and HPC workloads with support for next-generation GPU deployments.
NRT14 introduces a hybrid liquid- and air-cooling architecture designed to support high-performance AI infrastructure at scale. The facility is DGX-Ready certified and engineered to handle workloads exceeding 100 kW per rack, with colocation configurations supporting up to 150 kW per rack. Digital Realty positions the site to address rising demand in the Tokyo metro region for AI training, inference, and other compute-intensive applications, while maintaining low-latency connectivity and operational efficiency.
In parallel, Digital Realty opened its first Asia-Pacific Digital Realty Innovation Lab (DRIL) at the nearby NRT12 facility. The lab provides a production-grade environment for enterprises to test AI and hybrid cloud architectures, including liquid-cooled and air-cooled configurations, before full-scale deployment. The DRIL initiative expands the company’s global footprint of validation environments following its Northern Virginia launch in 2025, with a Singapore site planned for later in 2026.
- NRT14 is the third facility at the Narita campus, following NRT10 (2021) and NRT12 (2024)
- Total campus capacity approaching 100 MW of IT load
- Hybrid cooling supports both liquid and air-cooled GPU infrastructure
- Designed for >100 kW workloads; up to 150 kW per rack supported
- DGX-Ready certification for high-density AI deployments
- Renewable energy matching via non-fossil fuel certificates for colocation operations
- Integrated into PlatformDIGITAL with access to 300+ global data centers and 1,100+ cloud/IT services
- Campus Connect enables interconnection across NRT facilities; ServiceFabric enables global orchestration
- DRIL Tokyo enables real-world testing of AI, HPC, and hybrid cloud architectures
- DRIL supports up to 150 kW per cabinet and includes direct liquid cooling test environments
- Over 20 partners participating in DRIL ecosystem, including AMD, Cisco, and Lenovo
Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific at Digital Realty, said: “Japan plays a vital role in the region’s digital infrastructure ecosystem. The country’s rapidly increasing demand for AI training and inference deployments requires scalable, flexible, and highly connected data centers in the Tokyo metropolitan area. NRT14’s planned next-generation infrastructure and Digital Realty’s global open data center platform provide the foundational pillars our customers need to drive AI innovation across Asia Pacific.”
🌐 Analysis
Digital Realty’s expansion in Japan reflects a broader shift toward high-density, AI-optimized colocation infrastructure, particularly in Asia-Pacific markets where sovereign AI initiatives and enterprise adoption continue to accelerate. The combination of hybrid cooling, DGX-ready certification, and pre-deployment validation labs aligns with similar moves by hyperscalers and colocation providers globally to support >100 kW rack densities driven by advanced GPU clusters.
The introduction of DRIL in Tokyo also signals a growing emphasis on “test-before-deploy” infrastructure models, allowing enterprises to benchmark power, cooling, and orchestration strategies prior to committing capital. Competitors including Equinix and NTT have also expanded AI-ready capacity in Japan, but Digital Realty’s integration of global interconnection via PlatformDIGITAL and ServiceFabric positions it to capture distributed AI workloads spanning multiple regions.
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