JERA, Dell and RHAELM Plan $15 Billion AI Data Centre Near Tokyo, With Apollo Financing

Japan's largest power generator JERA has teamed up with DELL and UK-based AI infrastructure developer RHAELM to build a $15 billion, 400-megawatt-class hyperscale AI data centre in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo, Reuters reported. The site sits next to JERA's Chiba Thermal Power Station, which will supply 400 MW of power for 15 to 25 years, letting the facility draw power directly rather than wait in the grid connection queue. Phased operations are slated to begin in 2028, with full capacity in 2029.

Apollo Global Management (APO) is set to provide financing for the project as RHAELM's strategic investment and financial partner. RHAELM will develop, construct, operate and finance the data centre, while Dell supplies standardised, rack-scale AI infrastructure. JERA, which is jointly owned by Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power, is pitching its liquefied natural gas supply chain as a way to bring AI capacity online faster.

Chiba is meant as the first step of something larger. The partners plan several gigawatts of AI data centre capacity across Japan in the 2030s, using JERA's other power stations, and the Financial Times framed the broader push at $140 billion. The companies have not broken that larger figure down, so it reads as an ambition for the full build-out rather than committed capital: only the Chiba project has a named price tag and financier so far.

What to watch: whether further JERA sites are named, how Apollo's financing is structured, and whether Dell's role extends beyond the first site. Power availability is the binding constraint for AI data centres, and a generator that controls both fuel supply and grid-adjacent land is an unusual partner, which is why the model matters beyond this single project.