At a glance
- Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama signed a memorandum in Tokyo on 5 October naming digital infrastructure among five sectors where they will consider using their state-owned lenders.
- Japan was Australia's second-largest source of approved commercial foreign investment in 2024-25, at A$15 billion, and Chalmers called Australia a "prime investment destination".
- AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda says 224 Japanese suppliers earned more than A$1.5 billion in revenue from their work with AirTrunk in FY26.
- Japanese banks are among AirTrunk's largest lenders, and MUFG was among the banks lined up for an A$4.3 billion loan to build its SYD3 campus in Sydney.
Chalmers and Katayama list digital infrastructure for state lenders
On 5 October 2026 in Tokyo, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama signed a memorandum setting up the inaugural Australia-Japan Finance Ministerial Dialogue, which is to be held annually in principle.
The memorandum lists digital infrastructure among five sectors where the two governments will consider ways to use the financing capacity of their state-owned lenders: Export Finance Australia, the government's export credit agency, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The other four are energy and fuel security, green industry, housing and critical minerals. The memorandum names no projects. Its tools are information sharing, project development and complementary financing of investment opportunities.
Chalmers made the case for Japanese investment in Australia the same day, in his address to the 63rd Australia-Japan Joint Business Conference in Chiba. He told the conference that Japan was Australia's second-largest source of approved commercial foreign investment in 2024-25, at A$15 billion. He said Australia is "one of the world's top 10 markets for data centre capacity" and that the government is developing AI standards to give investors long-term policy certainty. He called Australia a "prime investment destination" and said the government wants to encourage "even more two‑way AI investment".
Australian operators are building in Japan as well. Goodman leased 50MW at its Tsukuba campus, north-east of Tokyo, to a hyperscale customer on a 20-year term in August, and NEXTDC broke ground on its TK1 data centre in central Tokyo in December 2025.
AirTrunk counts 224 Japanese suppliers in FY26
In the AI and digital infrastructure section of the speech, Chalmers called Sydney-founded AirTrunk "one example of an Australian‑headquartered company investing in Japan's digital future". He cited the ¥192 billion green loan for its TOK1 campus at Inzai, in Chiba Prefecture east of Tokyo, which he called the largest data centre financing in Japan's history.
AirTrunk founder and chief executive Robin Khuda spoke at the same conference, and met Chalmers, Japanese ministers and the Chiba governor during the week. In a LinkedIn post on 11 October about the trip, Khuda wrote that 224 Japanese suppliers earned more than A$1.5 billion in revenue from their work with AirTrunk in FY26. AirTrunk has about US$9 billion invested across four Japanese campuses, and four days before the post it announced US$1 billion in new financing for TOK1, along with a plan to triple its Japan investment within five years.
Writing in Capital Brief on 7 October, Khuda said each project creates work "well beyond the data centre, in design, construction, equipment and services", and that the TOK1 work "will draw on investment, suppliers, expertise and cooling technology from Australia, Japan and across Asia". In his post he wrote that "we need to build the infrastructure to support it and ensure the wider economic value reaches local businesses and communities".
Japanese banks lend to AirTrunk in Sydney and Tokyo
AirTrunk's commercial lenders include Japanese banks, separate from the state lenders in the memorandum. Khuda's post says Japanese banks are among AirTrunk's largest lenders. In a July interview with NNA, a business news wire in the Kyodo group, he said about 70 banks lend AirTrunk around A$30 billion worldwide, and that Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and MUFG Bank are the two largest.
Bloomberg reported in July that Blackstone, which leads the consortium that owns AirTrunk, was lining up eight banks, MUFG among them, for an A$4.3 billion loan to build the SYD3 campus in Sydney. In Japan, SMBC and MUFG co-led TOK1's March green loan with Crédit Agricole CIB and Société Générale. Both banks also lent to the US$1 billion green loan announced on 7 October, alongside United Overseas Bank. That loan pays for more capacity and liquid cooling so TOK1 can run the dense racks an AI data centre needs.
| AirTrunk's Japanese links | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese suppliers in FY26 | 224, earning more than A$1.5bn | Khuda, LinkedIn, 11 October 2026 |
| AirTrunk's lenders | About 70 banks, around A$30bn, SMBC and MUFG the two largest | Khuda to NNA, July 2026 |
| MUFG in the SYD3 loan, Sydney | A$4.3bn, one of eight banks | Bloomberg, July 2026 |
Source: Robin Khuda, NNA, Bloomberg.
What to watch
The finance dialogue's first projects. Whether a data centre is among the first investments Export Finance Australia or the Japan Bank for International Cooperation backs through the new dialogue.
The next ministerial meeting. The memorandum provides for an annual dialogue, and the next meeting's agenda will show what work has followed on digital infrastructure.
TOK1's liquid-cooled halls. A completion date for the expansion and cooling work funded by the October loan would mark when TOK1 can host large AI deployments.