NTT Data Group is close to an agreement to build Anthropic its first dedicated data center in Japan, according to reports in two Japanese newspapers published on October 13, 2026. Nikkei said the IT services arm of telecom group NTT is in the final stages of negotiations, and the Asahi Shimbun, citing its own sources, said the two sides are working toward a site on the Osaka coast. No agreement has been signed, and neither company has announced the project.
The numbers are large by Japanese standards. Nikkei reported that the facility could draw up to 500 megawatts of power and cost as much as 1 trillion yen, roughly $6.3 billion, to build. The Asahi described the same 500-megawatt intake and an investment of around 1 trillion yen, adding that the campus would rank among the biggest data centers in the country if it goes ahead.
Timing remains a long way off. According to Nikkei, as relayed by Reuters, partial operations could begin as early as 2028, and the companies hope to sign a formal agreement before the end of Japan's 2026 fiscal year on March 31, 2027. NTT declined to comment when Reuters asked about the report, and no statement from Anthropic was found in the sources reviewed for this story.
For Anthropic, the site would mark a shift in how it secures computing capacity in Asia. The Asahi reported that the Osaka project would probably become the company's first data center hub in the region, and that Anthropic is aiming for several facilities across Asia. The company opened a Tokyo office last autumn, its first in the Asia-Pacific region, and the newspaper linked the data center plan to a broader push to grow its business in Japan and neighbouring markets.
The deal would also give NTT Data a flagship AI-ready campus in its home market. Building for a single frontier AI developer at this scale would tie a large share of new capacity to one customer, which is why the final contract terms, including any long-term usage commitments, matter as much as the headline figures.
Several questions are still open. The reports do not say which hardware the site would use, how the power supply would be secured, or whether Anthropic would lease the building, the capacity or both. The 500-megawatt figure is described as maximum intake capacity, not a confirmed first phase, and costs for projects of this kind often change as plans firm up.
Until NTT Data or Anthropic confirms the arrangement, the project should be read as an advanced negotiation reported by well-sourced Japanese media rather than a finished deal. The next marker to watch is whether a signed agreement emerges before the March 2027 target that Nikkei reported.