NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) has announced plans to invest 8 trillion yen ($59 billion) over five years in artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and other growth areas. The investment is part of a larger 12 trillion yen spending plan for the medium term. A significant portion of the investment, at least 1.5 trillion yen, will be allocated to expanding and upgrading data centers, while the digital business, including AI and robots, will receive at least 3 trillion yen.
NTT aims to increase its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by around 20% to 4 trillion yen by the end of the fiscal year in March 2028. The company’s growth strategy includes a focus on Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) technology, which aims to reduce power consumption in communication networks. NTT plans to establish a dedicated company to consolidate IOWN-related manufacturing and development efforts.
In January, NTT planed to invest $3.5 billion on India’s digital infrastructure over the next seven years. The investments will mostly target digital infrastructure, and they will nearly increase the telco’s existing capacity to 300 MW.
NTT had also made significant progress in making data centers greener. In a pioneering move, the company deployed Liquid Immersion Cooling (LIC) and Direct Contact Liquid Cooling (DCLC) technologies at its Navi Mumbai data center, marking the largest and first implementation of these methods in the Asia-Pacific region. This shift resulted in a 30% increase in overall energy efficiency.
In February 2023, NTT Global Data Centers announced that it had landed its first submarine cable, MIST, in Mumbai, India, as the company aims to interconnect its large data centers in the aforementioned countries. The company also expects to land and lay cables in the remaining nine sections of the $150 million Philippine Domestic Submarine Cable Network (PDSCN).
In this March, NTT planned to launch six data centers in India within the next three months, with three more under construction. Since 2020, NTT has invested about $4.5 billion in India. Demand for cloud migration and services has been strong in India and globally, says NTT Global CEO Abhijit Dubey. In addition, NTT has invested 3 billion baht (US$90 million) in the development of its newest and largest data center in Thailand.
