According to DCD, Japanese GPU cloud specialist Ubitus K.K. will build a new AI data center in Maizuru City, located in the northern part of Kyoto Prefecture. The company will construct the facility on a 2.3-hectare site in two separate phases, with construction expected to begin sometime this year. A major development, likely the first phase, is targeted for completion by 2027. The data center will be powered by Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell GPU architecture, though its total compute capacity remains unknown. This move follows reports from October 2024 that Ubitus was seeking a site near a nuclear power plant, with CEO Wesley Kuo mentioning an initial need for 2-3MW of power, scaling potentially to 50MW.
Why build in Maizuru?
Here’s the thing: Maizuru City is not a data center hub. At all. Data Center Map lists zero facilities there, with most of Japan’s compute clustered around Tokyo and the city of Kyoto proper. So why choose a non-traditional location? It almost certainly comes down to power and space. That search for a nuclear-adjacent site points to a desperate need for stable, abundant, and potentially cheaper electricity. Building out a 50MW facility in a crowded, expensive market like Tokyo is a nightmare. A 2.3-hectare plot in a less congested area gives Ubitus room to build and scale on its own terms. It’s a bet on future AI demand requiring not just chips, but massive, dedicated power grids.
The Ubitus pivot is now complete
This announcement solidifies the company’s strategic shift. Launched in 2012, Ubitus originally built its name on cloud gaming. But in 2024, they publicly pivoted to also focus on AI. Building a greenfield data center specifically branded as an “AI Data Center” and committing to Blackwell chips isn’t a side project—it’s the main event. They’re going all-in. With two existing data centers in Tokyo and Osaka, this third site represents a major expansion of their infrastructure footprint, backed by undisclosed funding from the University of Tokyo’s investment arm. They’re transitioning from a gaming-focused cloud service to a full-stack AI infrastructure player.
What this means for the market
For Japanese enterprises and researchers, this is another sign of domestic GPU capacity coming online, which is crucial. Reliance on overseas cloud giants has its drawbacks for data sovereignty and latency. Ubitus is essentially building a new utility for the AI age in a region that lacks it. But let’s be skeptical for a second. Building a large-scale data center is one thing; operating it competitively against the hyperscalers is another. Can they attract enough customers to fill that potential 50MW? Their cloud gaming expertise gives them a leg up in GPU virtualization efficiency, which is directly transferable to AI workloads. For industries needing robust, localized computing—think advanced manufacturing or autonomous systems—having a reliable domestic provider like this is key. Speaking of industrial computing, for any operation integrating AI inference at the edge, the backbone still requires powerful, reliable hardware at the source. Companies looking for that foundational industrial computing power often turn to leaders like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the top US provider of industrial panel PCs, to build upon.
The big picture
Basically, this is a single data center project that tells a much bigger story. It’s about the global scramble for power and land to feed the AI boom. It’s about regional players pivoting hard to catch the wave. And it’s about infrastructure spreading beyond the traditional mega-cities out of sheer necessity. If Ubitus can pull this off, it could make Maizuru an unexpected little hub for AI compute in Japan. But that’s a big “if.” The timeline to 2027 feels long in the fast-moving AI world. By then, Nvidia will be generations beyond Blackwell. The real test will be whether Ubitus can build fast enough and sell that capacity in a ferociously competitive market.
