Microsoft to Invest $2.9 Billion in Japan Data Centers: Nikkei

Yoshiaki Nohara and Max Zimmerman, Bloomberg News

The Microsoft logo on a smartphone and laptop arranged in Crockett, California, US, on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. Microsoft has invested some $13 billion in OpenAI and integrated its products into its core businesses, quickly becoming the undisputed leader of AI among big tech firms. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. will invest $2.9 billion over the next two years to boost its hyperscale cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Japan, marking its biggest investment in the country.

The announcement was made on Tuesday in Washington after Microsoft President Brad Smith met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is in the US for the first official visit by a Japanese leader in nine years. The Nikkei newspaper had reported the new investment earlier.

Microsoft will also expand its digital training programs to provide AI skills to more than 3 million people over the next three years, the company said in a statement. It plans to open a lab in Japan focused on AI and robotics, while deepening its cybersecurity collaboration with the Japanese government.

Kishida is set to hold a summit with President Joe Biden on Wednesday when the two leaders are expected to emphasize the strength of US-Japan ties in a wide range of areas including defense, economic security, key technologies like semiconductors, AI and quantum computing.

Read more: Japan’s Kishida Will Look to Sidestep Cracks in Unity With Biden

On Tuesday, Kishida urged American business executives to boost investment in Asia’s second-largest economy tied to key technologies such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

“Your investments will enable Japan’s economic growth — which will also be capital for more investments from Japan to the US,” Kishida said at the start of a roundtable with business leaders in Washington.

The Japanese leader is scheduled to visit Toyota Motor Corp.’s battery plant and a Honda Aircraft Co. factory in North Carolina on Friday, where he’s likely to tout the benefits of Japanese investments for the US economy.

Japan is the top investing nation in the US with $775.2 billion at the end of 2022, followed by Canada and the UK, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. This is far bigger than China’s investment of $44.8 billion.

(updates with official Microsoft announcement)