ESR and Colt DCS Announce Joint Venture on New Osaka Data Centre Development

TOKYO, 16 October 2025 – ESR, an Asia-Pacific (“APAC”) focused real asset owner and manager, and Colt Data Centre Services (“Colt DCS”), a global provider of hyperscale, AI, and large enterprise data centre solutions, have entered into a joint venture to develop the first phase of a 130 MW¹ hyperscale data centre site in Minoh City, Osaka, Japan.

The first phase, comprising 65 MW1, will be designed and built by the ESR–Colt DCS joint venture and operated by Colt DCS. Strategically located in APAC’s second largest data centre market, the campus will support Japan’s accelerating public cloud adoption, digital transformation, and artificial intelligence (“AI”) solutions.

Site preparation work is already underway, with initial data centre building construction scheduled to begin in 2027 and expected to be ready for service in late 2029.

The partnership brings together Colt DCS’ proven operational excellence and over 25 years of development experience in Japan with ESR’s strong in-market development expertise and supply chain partnerships to provide high-quality data centre solutions for customers. Colt DCS opened its Osaka Keihanna data centre in 2023 and ESR’s first hyperscale asset, OS1, within its Cosmosquare Data Centre campus in Osaka, completed commissioning in 2025.

Niclas Sanfridsson, CEO of Colt DCS, said, “Colt DCS has built a strong track record of delivering world-class data centres for our hyperscale customers in Japan. The joint venture with ESR will allow us to accelerate our expansion in Japan, enabling us to support the expansion plans for our global cloud customers and the emerging AI sector.”

Stuart Gibson, Co-founder and Co-CEO, ESR, said, “Japan is a key pillar of our data centre strategy, and our joint venture with Colt DCS marks a milestone in our blueprint to deliver next-generation data centre infrastructure that underpins digital growth across the region. This site draws on our deep expertise in data centre development and reflects our commitment to driving long-term economic value and empowering digital transformation for our customers and the communities we serve.”

Diarmid Massey, CEO, Data Centres, ESR, added, “Our partnership with Colt DCS complements ESR’s ability to deliver data centres at scale in high-demand markets for capital partners and customers. Our purpose-built, high-performance Minoh data centre is being designed to support hyperscale, AI, and large enterprise-driven workloads. Beyond its technical capabilities, the site will be a vibrant hub for local innovation, engagement, and sustainable growth.”

The Minoh site spans approximately 140,000 square metres of land that ESR–Colt DCS joint venture has acquired and rezoned for this major redevelopment project, in partnership with the local government.

With a strong focus on ESG and local urban regeneration, the initial data centre forms part of the joint venture’s broader vision for a large-scale data centre site in Minoh City. The master plan for the site significantly improves and extends local road connectivity and will provide community amenities, such as an international school, local park, retail, and shared facilities. In line with ESR and Colt DCS’ green data centre development goals, the ESR-Colt DCS joint venture is aiming for LEED Gold certification.

¹ Facility Load