AirTrunk borrows $1 billion to add liquid cooling to a Tokyo campus built for cloud
AirTrunk took a $1 billion green loan to install liquid cooling at TOK1, its Inzai campus serving Tokyo, with first capacity due in January 2028. The money goes into a campus AirTrunk opened in 2021 for cloud demand. TOK1 is where the company tests converting a running site for denser AI workloads.
The Engineer · Build desk
What happened
- Capital Brief reported that AirTrunk plans to deploy the cooling for multiple customers, though neither the financing report nor the project details identify them.
- The loan follows a US$1.24 billion green loan in March 2026 that refinanced existing facilities and funded further development at the same campus.
- AirTrunk's earlier liquid-cooling work is a 20MW deployment in Malaysia, announced in 2024 after five years of research and development.
- The loan report does not name the lenders or say whether owners Blackstone or CPP Investments funded the project directly.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint January 2028 is the only date AirTrunk has put on liquid-cooled capacity at TOK1. A Tokyo buyer with an earlier AI deadline has to plan on another site.
- What it costs cost The $1 billion cannot be read as a price per megawatt for comparison with a new build, because AirTrunk has not split cooling from other campus costs.
- What it sets up precedent AirTrunk says TOK1 will inform its future installations across Japan and Asia-Pacific. The cost and schedule of this retrofit will shape its next liquid-cooling builds in the region.
TOK1 already has its power. The campus opened with dedicated substations and access to utility power, according to AirTrunk's opening announcement, and was designed to scale beyond 300MW [5]. The first phases were built around that power and a location serving the Tokyo region. Runtimewire describes liquid cooling as the next technical step in making the campus suitable for higher-density AI workloads [13]. In my view, putting new cooling into a site that already has utility power is the right order of work for an operator in AirTrunk's position.
AirTrunk's liquid-cooling reference is small next to this site. The Malaysian deployment's 20MW [6] is less than a third of the more than 60MW in TOK1's first phases alone [16]. Treat the Malaysian result as a claim about a 20MW workload. It carries over to Tokyo if TOK1's liquid-cooled phase is of similar size, and AirTrunk has not said how much AI capacity the TOK1 work will produce [12].
January 2028 is Capital Brief's expected go-live for the first liquid-cooled capacity [2]. It is a target. Before then, AirTrunk has to install the cooling and bring it online while still managing power and campus construction. It also has to do that before forecast demand is fully visible, according to runtimewire [14].
Add the March loan, part of which refinanced existing facilities, and TOK1 has backed $2.24 billion of green debt across two deals [8][15]. Capital Brief puts AirTrunk's total investment commitment across existing and planned Japanese projects at $9 billion [9]. A Blackstone-led consortium that included Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has owned the company since 2024, when it bought AirTrunk in a deal valued at A$24 billion [10].
What to watch
- AirTrunk disclosing how many megawatts of liquid-cooled capacity TOK1 will add and how much of the $1 billion goes to cooling.
- Any revision to the January 2028 go-live target, or a published schedule for liquid-cooled phases after it.
- Named customers for the TOK1 liquid-cooled capacity.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption15
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives45
- Confidence45
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
On October 7, AirTrunk secured a $1 billion green loan tied to deploying liquid cooling at TOK1, its hyperscale campus in Inzai, Japan. Reuters reported the financing.
- [2]
The first liquid-cooled capacity at TOK1 is expected to go live in January 2028.
- [3]
AirTrunk plans to deploy the cooling technology for multiple customers; neither the financing report nor the available project details identify those customers.
- [4]
AirTrunk has not disclosed how much of the loan is allocated to cooling versus other campus costs.
- [5]
AirTrunk opened the Inzai campus in 2021, describing it as scalable beyond 300 megawatts and built to serve Tokyo's cloud region. Its initial phases offered more than 60MW for anchor customers, and the site included dedicated substations and access to utility power.
- [6]
AirTrunk said in 2024 that it had deployed 20MW of liquid-cooled capacity in Malaysia after five years of research and development.
- [7]
AirTrunk says the TOK1 deployment will inform future installations across Japan and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
- [8]
In March 2026, AirTrunk announced a US$1.24 billion green loan to refinance existing facilities and fund further TOK1 development.
- [9]
AirTrunk's total investment commitment across existing and planned Japanese projects is now $9 billion.
- [10]
In 2024, a Blackstone-led consortium that included Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired AirTrunk in a transaction valued at A$24 billion, with Khuda investing alongside the buyers.
- [11]
The October loan report does not name its lenders or say whether Blackstone or CPP Investments funded the project directly.
- [12]
AirTrunk has not disclosed the resulting AI capacity, the deployment schedule beyond the January 2028 target, or which customers will use it.
- [13]
The campus was designed for cloud demand. The first TOK1 phases used power infrastructure and a location serving the Tokyo region; liquid cooling is the next technical step in making the campus suitable for higher-density AI workloads.
- [14]
AirTrunk must install and bring the cooling capacity online while managing power and campus construction, before forecast demand is fully visible.
- [15]
TOK1 has backed $2.24 billion of green loans across the March 2026 and October deals.
- [16]
AirTrunk's 20MW Malaysian liquid-cooled deployment is less than a third of the more than 60MW in TOK1's initial phases.
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- runtimewire.comAirTrunk takes a $1B green loan to cool AI workloads in Japan
1 article · October 6, 2026
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