Nippon Life, a major life insurance company, is set to invest ¥2 trillion ($12.7 billion) in U.S. AI infrastructure projects, as reported by Nihon Keizai Shimbun. This funding will be in the form of project finance, where the revenue generated by the projects will facilitate repayment.
The focus is on investing in domestic data centers, with the U.S. being a primary target due to its leading number of data centers worldwide. Nippon Life views U.S. project finance as attractive because it typically offers a return of over two percentage points above borrowing costs and aids in portfolio diversification. Historically, large Japanese banks have concentrated on domestic data centers but are now exploring global AI data center investment opportunities.
According to PwC, global data center investments are projected to grow to $31.6 trillion by 2050, a 38-fold increase compared to 2026 levels.
