China Development Financial's CDIB Capital Group, a major Taiwanese investment company, and Shinetsu Science Industry held a press conference in Satsumasendai City, Kagoshima Prefecture, on September 30, announcing plans to build a large-scale data center (DC) in the city. Working with Circular Park Kyushu (CPQ), a Kyushu Electric Power group company building a circular society on the site of a former thermal power plant, the partners aim to locate the facility on CPQ's grounds.
The power capacity indicating the scale of the DC is 350 megawatts in the initial phase, among the largest in Japan. The initiative will capture demand growing with the spread of artificial intelligence (AI), and also looks toward the clustering of related industries — DC maintenance, parts manufacturing and the recycling of servers past their manufacturer warranty — and the development of talent. The start of operations and the investment amount will be finalized with stakeholders going forward.
CDIB Executive Vice President Daniel Tsou and Michel Chu, together with Kotaro Kosaka, Chairman of Shinetsu Science Industry (headquartered in Nagano City), the Japanese partner engaged in the AI data center business, visited Satsumasendai City Hall and the Kagoshima Prefectural Government to explain the plan. Both governments had long been working to attract data centers, and Governor Koichi Shiota welcomed the plan, saying the prefecture wishes to support it.
CDIB and Shinetsu Science Industry expressed their intention to begin construction as early as possible once power supply is secured and permitting procedures progress, with a policy of procuring electricity from decarbonized sources.
As the business entity in Kagoshima Prefecture, a new company, Kaishin Digital Infrastructure (凱信数基), is being established and registration is under way.