A nickel oxide powder material that can restrain cracking of electrode due to oxidation expansion and peeling from a electrolyte and thus can decrease deterioration of the power generation characteristics, when used as an anode material for a solid oxide type fuel cell and its efficient production method, and the anode material for the solid oxide type fuel cell using the nickel oxide powder material. The nickel oxide powder material for an anode material constituting a solid oxide type fuel cell is characterized in that it is made up of a core particle (a) composed of a nickel oxide fine particle and a coating layer (b) including a zirconium hydroxide, which is formed on the surface of the core particle (a), as its main component, and that the zirconium content contained in the coating layer (b) is 0.001 to 0.01 g/m2 per surface area of the nickel oxide fine particle.