JERA, the Japanese utility that generates about a third of the country’s electricity, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dell Technologies and RHAELM Holdings to develop AI data centre capacity of up to 400MW at its Chiba Thermal Power Station, east of Tokyo. Apollo Global Management joins as strategic investment and financing partner. Spending across all development phases is expected to exceed US$15bn, around 2.3 trillion yen, with operations targeted to begin around 2028.
Be clear what this is. A memorandum of understanding is an intention to proceed rather than a signed construction contract, and the parties have published no breakdown of how the $15bn divides between phases or partners. The headline figure is theirs and is not yet committed capital.
Why it matters: siting compute next to existing generation is the industry’s current answer to its binding constraint, which is grid connection rather than chips. That is precisely the pitch. Yukio Kani, JERA’s global CEO and chair, said the company “already generate[s] one third of Japan’s electricity and suppl[ies] nearly all of the power consumed in the Tokyo metropolitan area”. The announcement sets out the terms.
The partners call Chiba a repeatable template and intend to explore other JERA sites, with an ambition of multi-gigawatt capacity across Japan in the 2030s.