Nvidia’s GPUs see high demand from Japan’s Sakura Internet for data centers

Japan’s Sakura Internet requires tens of thousands of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) graphic processing units a year, and its upcoming data center would likely be fully booked when it comes online in three years, Bloomberg News reported.

The Japanese company — which is an alternative in Japan to data centers run by Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google, and Amazon (AMZN) — is in discussions to purchase about 10,000 Nvidia GPUs every year to meet the growing demand, the report added, citing Founder and CEO Kunihiro Tanaka

. “We need some 50,000 to 100,000 Nvidia GPUs to comfortably handle the demand we see today,” said Tanaka in an interview. “We would need a million GPUs 10 years from now, if demand rises at the current pace.”

The data center, which is being set up in the country’s northern island of Hokkaido, is expected to hold about 10,800 Nvidia GPUs when it goes online by 2027.

The Japanese government is bearing about half of the cost of the facility, which cost over ¥100B ($650M), the report added.

Nvidia’s most advanced GPUs can cost millions of dollars, amid growing demand worldwide. The Osaka-based company intends to capitalize on its years-long relationship with Nvidia to secure the GPUs, said Tanaka, according to the report.

The company’s current capacity is fully booked, with a waiting list extending for years, which include national research institutions, universities and companies, Tanaka added.

Sakura currently has local clients but it expects to take requests from abroad as it increases its computing power.

The company plans to spend an additional ¥8.7B on GPUs in the next two months, the report noted.

In addition, Tanaka said that Nvidia’s GPUs are “the only option” for the company in terms of providing the needed computing power. However, it would continue to weigh options, such as products from Intel (INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (ADC) and Qualcomm (QCOM).