Itochu enters data center development with ten sites in Japan

Data Center Dynamics reports that Itochu, the Japanese investment firm founded in 1858 as a textiles company, is entering data center development. The plan covers around ten facilities in Japan, with sites in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyushu. Each site would run roughly 50MW. Reports cited by the outlet peg the investment at 'several 100 billion yen.' That comes to $630.6 million, with no more specific figure set.

Itochu intends to lease the data centers to U.S. tech giants and eventually sell them to third parties. New facilities are expected to reach operational status annually, according to the reports.

Itochu has been here before. Its IT arm, Itochu Techno-Solutions, sold five data centers in 2021 and now runs six, in Yokohama, Kobe, Shibuya, and Mejirozaka. Late last year, Itochu signed a memorandum of understanding with Castrol on liquid cooling; Itochu Techno-Solutions would handle design, implementation, and operations end to end. That cooling tie-up is the only technical detail in the public record so far.

Itochu's operations span textiles, machinery, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs, and IT, so data centers would extend an existing technology business. The 2021 sale, followed by this ten-site plan, suggests a deliberate sequence: build, lease to hyperscalers, then sell.

At 50MW per site, the full buildout would land around 500MW of capacity by 2030. The annual schedule gives the program a patient cadence, with capacity reaching the market one facility at a time rather than in a single wave.