Global Data Center Growth and the AI Revolution: Insights from NTT

Matt Vincent, Editor in Chief for Data Center Frontier, recently sat down with Doug Adams, President and CEO of Global Data Centers for NTT DATA to discuss AI and liquid cooling, and NTT’s plans for the future.

Matt Vincent: I know that about a year and a half ago, you took over as the global CEO. So, I wanted to ask you how that's been for you personally, and also, what it's meant for the company in this age of generative AI.

Doug Adams: As you said, I took over the global CEO role at NTT Global Data Centers in the summer of 2023. Prior to that, I was responsible for just the US data center business. It's been a really fun year and a half. I've had the experience of working with the four global business units and joining them into one functioning entity. What that means for us is that we're able to take advantage of the economies of scale across these four companies, and we're able to better serve our clients, which is exciting. Our industry has been growing at a CAGR of about 13.5%. Now, new AI colocation demand is expected to grow at a CAGR of 75% over the next 5 years. As a company, NTT Global Data Centers globally has always grown at about double what the industry growth rates are. So we've already been in a fast-paced growth business, but when you add AI into the equation, it's amazing the growth that we're seeing. We currently have more than 200MW of AI deployments live or in development.

Vincent: Can you talk about what bringing the four regional business units into a single entity really means and how that's going to be an advantage both for the business and for your clients?

Adams: Coming together as a single global entity has three main benefit points. One, for our clients, who get a true global portfolio of data centers, and one contract, so it’s easier for them to do business with us. Two, for our stakeholders at NTT DATA. Operating as one entity gives us greater economies of scale and therefore greater profit, which is important for our shareholders. And three, and most importantly, for our employees, who now have a global career path and frankly, more resources and a much better organized company. So, joining these four disparate global companies into one entity really has been extremely beneficial and it's added a lot of value to our clients, our customers and our stakeholders.

Vincent: What has the generative AI phenomenon really meant for NTT Global Data Centers?

Adams: We were very fortunate in the fact that globally, in our customer list, is virtually every hyperscaler and every AI producer, so we were very early adopters of bringing on AI clients. We currently have more than 250MW of liquid to the chip deployments in the US. In India, we had one of the first deployments of Liquid Immersion Cooling, which is a very efficient technology and really good for the environment. We had a customer PhonePe that wanted to adopt this technology. They were very forward looking. We had a really excellent team of local engineering resources there that worked collaboratively with the customer to execute the solution. It was one of the first scale Liquid Immersion Cooling installs that I'm aware of globally. Because we were early adopters of the technology, we’ve got a lot of experience with AI and have been able to ride that wave that AI has created for the industry.

Vincent: How do you see the liquid cooling technology expanding across the entire portfolio of data centers?

Adams: If you look back, part of the reason why we've been early adopters and have had such success with AI is that our SVP of Global Product, Bruno Berti, early on made sure that our infrastructure was adaptable for water to the chip cooling. We pre-tied in interconnects within our chiller systems and our cooling system so that we could easily enable that for our customers, which has been a huge selling point for the large hyperscalers and AI providers. We’re standardizing our portfolio globally to ensure that the newest data centers we're building are all AI capable, and a significant number of our legacy sites around the world can be modified for liquid cooling. It’s a very important part of the business because the benefit that water to the chip brings, from a sustainability standpoint, is so extreme that I think we're going to find that over time, much of the everyday compute, and much of the compute today that's just traditional air-cooled, will adopt the liquid to the chip cooling because it’s incredibly efficient.

Vincent: Since you mentioned sustainability, can you talk about all the ways that NTT Global Data Centers is focused on a sustainable practice and environmental stewardship?

Adams: This is an area where NTT DATA absolutely shines from the top of our organization, our global holdings-level CEO, Shimada-san. We have a strong desire to truly embrace sustainability.  We have made a commitment to provide over one million man hours globally for sustainability. We created what at the time, was the largest green bond fund created, $3.7 billion. We, like others, have made a commitment to achieve net-zero emissions across our operations by 2030, and we're putting those plans in place right now. If you look at the overall global portfolio, we're tipping about 60%, but we have a roadmap to be 100% there.

Vincent: Could you tell us a little bit more about Global Data Centers’ expansion plans?

Adams: Absolutely. We now have more than 155 data centers around the world, with ongoing construction and expansion in each region, which is instrumental for our growth and our clients’ growth. We have more than 2.5 gigawatts of IT capacity launched and in development.  Last year, we announced that we are opening a large campus in Paris, which is a great achievement for us in completing our presence in the FLAP market. We also are doing huge expansions within Berlin and Frankfurt. We just recently announced that we’ve purchased land in Johor, Malaysia will open a 290MW campus there in 2027. Within the US, we just opened our new campus in Northern Virginia, are currently expanding our campus in Chicago and plan to expand in the Hillsboro market as well. In India, we’ll be opening several new data centers this year. We have quite a bit of land banked already, and we're in the process of banking additional land. 

Vincent: In keeping with the narrative about NTT's global growth, I wanted to ask you about the flow of investment and the importance of that to NTT's business.

Adams: If you look at what we've publicly disclosed, we've said that we're going to commit more than $10 billion US dollars between now and 2027 to the data center business. At that level, that's commensurate with what the top two players in the market have publicly disclosed that they will be spending in CAPEX. That gives us the unique ability to be able to really grow our platform, which you’re seeing in all of our current and upcoming projects. We’re continuing to land bank and grow our business, which is propelled by NTT's ability to help fund and fuel our business.

Vincent: I know also that you've got some significant expansion in India. Can you describe that for us? 

Adams: We view India as a very, very strategic market. If you look at it, it has a relatively stable economic environment. It's got a relatively stable government, it's business friendly. There's a huge pool of very high-quality labor. It is the largest global market at 1.5 billion people. All that combined makes for a pretty good place to build data centers. Last year, we opened data centers in Chennai and Noida, and we have new data centers in Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai coming online this year. We have made a huge commitment to India and are building in all of the key major markets there. We are currently the number one provider in India, and we expect to maintain that.

Vincent: I know you’re passionate about the people who work with you and the GDC culture. Can you share a little bit about NTT's commitment its employees?

Adams: I look at data centers as very cool high-tech buildings without the people. It's just a collection of high-tech buildings. The people are what really make the difference. So, our ability to retain and attract talent is absolutely key for our global platform. And it’s an area where we've really shined. We have some of the brightest minds and best people within our management team. We recently announced our regional Managing Directors, who will oversee sales and client relations in each region, and I’m really excited to see how they support our teams and grow our business in their respective regions.

In terms of supporting our employees, one of our focus areas is expanding our Employee Resource Groups, ERGs, across the globe.  As we have globalized our business, it has also created new career pathing and opportunities for our existing employees that come with being part of a global organization. It's a critical piece of our business and will continue to be a key initiative for me.

Vincent: I know NTT has a lot invested in terms of research and R&D. Can you talk a little about how that is fueling the growth of innovation for the company?

Adams: One of the key benefits of being part of one of the world's largest companies, it's $97 billion in revenue, 330,000 employees globally, is they have a tremendous R&D budget, and so we spend a little more than $3 billion annually on R&D. There's a facility in Palo Alto headed by Kazu Gomi, a dear friend of mine, that is looking at cryptography as well as other emerging technologies. We're also part of one of the leads on the IOWN initiative. If you look at IOWN from a layman standpoint, it’s really about replacing silicon chips with photonic technology. That means you have less latency because it travels literally at the speed of light. As you see heavy deployments of AI and cloud and other more dense compute platforms, they produce a tremendous amount of heat. If at the point we switch to IOWN technology, these deployments will produce far less heat and be much better for the environment. I'm very proud of the fact that NTT is part of this large technology consortium that will bring Ione to the market over the next few years.