Digital Realty’s Tokyo Data Centre is now NVIDIA-Certified

Digital Realty is preparing to bring one of Japan’s most advanced AI-ready data centres online, with its upcoming NRT14 facility in the Greater Tokyo area set to achieve NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center certification. 

The milestone positions NRT14 among the first facilities in the country capable of supporting next-generation, high-density AI infrastructure and reinforces Digital Realty’s role as a strategic partner for organisations deploying advanced compute across Asia Pacific.

Developed through MC Digital Realty, the company’s joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation, NRT14 is designed to host NVIDIA DGX GB200 systems and other NVIDIA GB200 NVL72-based platforms built on the Grace Blackwell architecture. 

These systems are engineered for the most demanding AI training and inference workloads, placing new requirements on power delivery, cooling and operational resilience within the data centre.

Supporting high-density AI infrastructure

Certification under the NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center programme confirms that NRT14 meets strict technical criteria, including the ability to support rack densities of 100kW or more. This capability reflects a growing shift towards liquid-cooled infrastructure as AI workloads push beyond the limits of traditional air-cooled environments.

According to NVIDIA, liquid-cooled Blackwell architectures can deliver up to 25 times greater energy efficiency than conventional air-cooled systems. This translates into the ability to host more compute within a smaller footprint while managing power consumption and thermal loads more effectively.

For customers, the implications are equally significant. By deploying Blackwell-based GPUs within a DGX-Ready environment, enterprises can accelerate time to insight, improve performance for AI and analytics workloads and reduce operational costs associated with power and cooling.

Expanding a global AI platform

The NRT14 milestone builds on an expanding collaboration between Digital Realty and NVIDIA. The two companies recently announced the NVIDIA AI Factory Research Center at Digital Realty’s Northern Virginia campus, establishing a model for scalable, high-density AI infrastructure. Extending this approach to Japan gives NVIDIA and its partners access to a globally consistent platform that can support AI deployments across regions.

Digital Realty now operates DGX-Ready certified sites in more than 20 countries, including six across Asia Pacific. In Japan, its KIX13 facility in Osaka achieved certification in 2023, laying the groundwork for broader adoption of DGX-Ready infrastructure across the market.

By adding NRT14 to this portfolio, Digital Realty is strengthening its ability to support multinational customers that require consistent infrastructure standards across geographies while responding to local market demand.

Liquid cooling and operational readiness

“Achieving this certification underscores Digital Realty’s ability to deliver liquid cooling for the next generation of AI-ready infrastructure,” says Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer, Digital Realty. “This milestone builds on years of work with NVIDIA and reflects our shared commitment to turning AI ambition into operational reality for our customers.”

Liquid cooling is becoming a defining feature of AI-focused data centre design, particularly as rack densities rise and efficiency targets tighten. For facilities like NRT14, integrating liquid cooling from the outset allows operators to plan power distribution, redundancy and maintenance models around these systems rather than retrofitting legacy designs.

From an operational perspective, DGX-Ready certification also signals readiness in areas such as physical security, network connectivity and serviceability, all of which are critical for enterprises running business-critical AI workloads.

Asia Pacific as an AI growth region

“Demanding AI reasoning workloads require a new class of high-density, energy-efficient infrastructure to power the global wave of AI-driven transformation,” says Charlie Boyle, Vice President, DGX Systems, NVIDIA. “The certification of Digital Realty's liquid-cooled data centre in Japan expands the reach of this foundational infrastructure for the age of AI, helping enterprises deploy and scale their most demanding workloads.”

Japan’s role within the Asia-Pacific digital economy continues to grow as enterprises invest in AI, analytics and high-performance computing. Facilities like NRT14 are designed to address both domestic demand and the needs of global customers seeking resilient regional hubs.

“As AI adoption accelerates globally, Asia Pacific is emerging as the epicentre of global digital transformation,” says Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, Digital Realty. “This certification strengthens our AI-ready footprint in Japan and across the region, underscoring our commitment to building resilient, low-carbon infrastructure that supports customers’ high-performance computing needs and regional sustainability goals.”

With NRT14, Digital Realty is aligning advanced AI infrastructure with regional sustainability and efficiency priorities, while providing a platform capable of supporting the next wave of high-density compute deployments in Japan.