Dell, JERA and RHAELM plan a 400MW AI data centre beside a power plant
The $15 billion Chiba campus would draw power straight from JERA's own generators instead of the grid, with phased operation from 2028, according to JERA's announcement.
JERA, Japan's largest power generator, said on 1 October that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dell Technologies and the UK developer RHAELM. The first project is a 400-megawatt data centre in Chiba Prefecture. JERA puts the investment at more than $15 billion, about 2.3 trillion yen. The agreement is a memorandum, not a final contract.
The unusual part is the power. JERA says the campus will sit next to its Chiba thermal power station and run behind the meter from the plant's existing generation, which the company says lets capacity arrive years ahead of a grid-connected build. JERA will supply the land, and RHAELM will develop, build, run and finance the site.
Dell would provide standardised, rack-scale AI hardware, and Apollo Global Management is named as the strategic investment and financing partner for RHAELM, according to JERA and to Bloomberg's headline on the financing. Phased operation is targeted from around 2028, with the full 400 megawatts expected in 2029, according to press summaries of the deal. JERA says Dell would take power under an agreement running 15 to 25 years.
JERA presents Chiba as a template: a standardised, repeatable model it hopes to copy across its other sites and possibly other markets in the 2030s. Chief executive Yukio Kani said JERA is "uniquely positioned to power Japan's AI ambitions". The figures and timetable are the companies' own plans. None has been independently verified, and no chip supplier or tenant for the capacity has been named.