Oracle leads the race to build Japan a secret, air-gapped cloud

Oracle is leading the race to build Japan an air-gapped cloud, sealed off from the internet. Washington wants it to counter Chinese hacking.

Before the US shares more of its secrets with Japan, it wants Japan to lock them down. Oracle is now the front-runner to build the vault.

Larry Ellison’s company has pulled ahead of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to supply Japan’s government with an air-gapped cloud, the Financial Times reported. An air-gapped system walls itself off from the outside, keeping the most sensitive data off the open internet.

The pitch rests on security, and on Ellison’s close ties to Donald Trump. Oracle shares rose on the news.

Why now

The driver is China. Washington has spent years pressing Tokyo to harden its cyber defences against Chinese hacking. That urgency has grown as the two allies deepen work on weapons and on deterring Beijing.

A secure government cloud is meant to make that trust possible. It would let the US and its allies pass sensitive material to Tokyo without fear of leaks. The longer-term prize is a closer place for Japan inside allied intelligence sharing, including the Five Eyes.

Nothing is final yet. The FT notes that Tokyo has not decided, and that Japan could still split the work across several vendors.

Sovereignty as a sales pitch

The deal is part of a bigger shift. Governments increasingly want sovereign clouds they control, not open platforms run from abroad. Britain just labelled US clouds critical to its financial system.

Oracle has leaned into that mood. Its executives argue the advantage is the data, not the model, and that customers want control over where it sits.

A crowded, guarded market

Defence budgets are pulling tech firms in. The Pentagon recently paused a cyber-audit rule, and European labs like Finland’s NestAI are building military-grade systems that states can own.

For Oracle, Japan would be a marquee win. For Washington, it is a step toward a closer ally. The vault comes first. The secrets follow.