CloudHQ and ESR Announce Joint Venture To Co-Develop and Operate US$2 Billion, 130 Mw Cosmosquare Data Centre Campus in Japan

ESR Group Limited (“ESR” or the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries as the “Group”; SEHK Stock Code: 1821), Asia-Pacific’s (“APAC”) leading New Economy real asset manager, and global data centre provider CloudHQ have entered into a joint venture on ESR’s US$2 billion Cosmosquare Data Centre campus in Nanko Kita, Osaka, Japan.

ESR and CloudHQ will jointly build, fit out, and operate the entire Cosmosquare Data Centre campus, which will deliver 130 megawatts (“MW”^[1]) of data centre capacity over three phases (OS1, OS2, and OS3). OS1 is ESR’s first data centre facility in Japan and will be ready for service in June 2025. Once fully fitted out, OS1 will provide customers with 25 MW of data centre capacity.

Stuart Gibson, ESR Group Co-Founder and Co-CEO, said, “ESR Cosmosquare is a flagship project for ESR, and we are delighted to be working with CloudHQ to tap the immense data centre growth opportunities that exist in Japan. ESR has one of the largest real estate development teams in APAC, which enables us to leverage local market supply chain solutions and partnerships to deliver data centres on spec, on time, and on budget for the benefit of our data centre partners. Additionally, this partnership showcases the unique competitive advantage of ESR’s multi-model data centre platform in offering full flexibility to accommodate the diverse needs of our customers.”

Hossein Fateh, Founder and CEO of CloudHQ, said, “We are excited to partner with ESR on this groundbreaking venture in Japan. The Cosmosquare Data Centre campus represents a significant step forward in our mission to deliver state-of-the-art data centre solutions globally. ESR’s deep local real estate knowledge combined with CloudHQ’s engineering expertise will make this a powerful partnership going forward. This joint venture will enable us to better serve our clients in Japan and across the Asia-Pacific region, ensuring they have access to the highest quality data centre infrastructure and services.”

Johnson Tan, MD and EVP of CloudHQ Asia, added, “This joint venture marks our ambitious expansion into the Asian market, where we see immense potential for growth. We are excited to bring our expertise and advanced technology to this region and look forward to further opportunities to serve our customers in Asia.”

Alongside logistics real estate as well as infrastructure and renewables, ESR’s accelerated data centre strategy underpins the Group’s next phase of growth as it unlocks opportunities driven by digitalisation, cloud and Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) adoption. ESR is committed to developing greener data centres, targeting net zero emissions for its Data Centres platform by 2040, with an interim goal of achieving 75% of renewable and low-carbon energy by 2030.

Commenting on the region’s huge unmet data centre demand and rapid technology adoption, Diarmid Massey, CEO of ESR Data Centres, said, “We have a strong conviction in the growth of the data centre market in Japan and across APAC. Our pipeline continues to develop in all APAC markets as we focus our business on developing world-class solutions and campuses for partners in Japan, South Korea, Australia, and India with the backing of our operating and capital partners. We are delivering on our commitments to build a diverse platform covering both established primary markets as well as developing markets regionally.”

In Japan, surging demand for cloud services is fuelled by the country’s manufacturing, automotive, financial services, healthcare, and government sectors. The Japanese data centre industry is expected to seize this growth opportunity, aiming to increase its market share by prioritising technological innovation and sustainability.

ESR’s other data centre developments in Japan include previously announced campuses in both Keihana and Minoh City, Osaka, as well as Ariake, Tokyo. Across the wider APAC region, ESR data centre platform has assets in locations as diverse as Hong Kong, Mumbai and Seoul. ESR’s pipeline of more than 2 GW of development ready projects with committed power supports partners and customers in core markets for AI and hyperscale cloud demand in Asia.