Oracle leads race to build Japan an air-gapped cloud

This article was published on July 16, 2026 Oracle is leading the race to build Japan an air-gapped cloud, sealed off from the internet. Washington wants it to counter Chinese hacking. 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. 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