TOKYO - Major telecommunications provider NTT Inc. is considering building the first core data center for U.S. artificial intelligence startup Anthropic in Japan, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The construction cost for the data center, to be built in a coastal area in southern Osaka Prefecture and handled by NTT Data Group Corp., is expected to total roughly 1 trillion yen ($6.3 billion), making it one of the leading projects in the country.

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