NTT DATA Expands AI Factory Network to Five Global Sites in Partnership With Cisco and Nvidia

To bridge the persistent execution gap preventing corporate pilots from transitioning into live production, IT infrastructure and services giant NTT DATA has expanded its international AI Factory network across three continents, increasing its dedicated footprint to five global sites.

The enterprise rollout introduces new operational facilities in Paris (France), Munich (Germany), and Singapore, joining existing facilities operating in Plano, Texas, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The testing environments provide enterprise clients with physical staging grounds to benchmark AI workloads, test data residency models, evaluate networking latencies, and forecast inference expenses under real-world operating conditions prior to committing large capital expenditure.

Munich 2 and the Cisco-Nvidia Architecture The centerpiece of the European expansion is NTT DATA AI Factory Munich, deployed inside the NTT Global Data Centers’ Munich 2 campus:

• High-Density Capacity: The Munich 2 facility delivers 6,300 square meters of specialized data center space across two structures, supported by a critical IT load of 14 megawatts (MW).

• Testing Proprietary Assets: Rather than demonstrating generic vendor sandboxes, the Munich cluster allows enterprise customers to run their own proprietary data and algorithms inside an isolated, production-grade GPU environment to evaluate compliance, security controls, and throughput.

• The Full-Stack Foundation: The network leverages Cisco Secure AI Factory with Nvidia, combining enterprise switching, data fabric security, and Nvidia accelerated computing to support neocloud and sovereign AI requirements.

"Scaling AI goes beyond computing. Enterprises need a secure and resilient infrastructure foundation that spans infrastructure, security, performance and operations, while maintaining control of their data and AI economics." — Cassie Roach, Global Vice President of AI Infrastructure & Connectivity Partner Sales, Cisco

De-risking the Pilot-to-Production Chasm According to Dilip Kumar, President and Global Head of Infrastructure Solutions at NTT DATA, the primary barrier to AI return on investment is not a shortage of foundational models, but operational uncertainty around hardware placement, power consumption, and network egress costs. By offering access points across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific, the facilities let multinational enterprises maintain strict localized data governance and low-latency throughput for edge inference.

The $6.3 Billion Anthropic Deal in Osaka The expansion of NTT DATA's testing centers arrives as the parent group prepares massive physical infrastructure investments in East Asia:

• Anthropic Cloud Hub: NTT DATA is reportedly finalizing negotiations with frontier AI lab Anthropic to develop a dedicated, large-scale AI data center in Osaka, Japan.

• Multi-Billion-Dollar Commitment: The proposed development represents a reported investment of $6.3 billion, with commercial terms expected to conclude by March 2027.

• Sovereign Japanese Presence: If finalized, the site would mark Anthropic's first dedicated data center campus in Japan, with initial phases slated to go operational as early as 2028.