Japan's Power Giant JERA Teams Up with Dell and Partners to Build the Country's Largest AI Data Center in Chiba
Summary
JERA, Japan's largest power utility, signed a memorandum of understanding with Dell and sovereign AI infrastructure developer RHAELM to jointly set a standardized framework for AI infrastructure buildout in Japan. The first data center will be located in Chiba Prefecture with a design capacity of 400MW — Japan's largest single data center site — at an estimated total investment of over $15 billion, with Apollo providing financing support and the site targeted to come online in 2028. The partners also plan to extend the model to other JERA sites, aiming for multi-GW scale AI infrastructure capacity by the 2030s.
Bubble analysis
This is another huge capex commitment as AI infrastructure spending spreads globally: over $15 billion for a single data center, with plans for multi-GW capacity by the 2030s, showing money is still pouring into the compute supply side. It does not directly answer the core bubble question of whether AI revenue can cover this spending, but it sits on the 'capex keeps escalating' side of the bubble debate.
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