SoftBank buys Sharp's old facility for $676 million to collaborate with OpenAI in Japan

SoftBank aims to realize its ambitions of building a major AI company in its domestic market in Japan, both independently and through strategic partnerships with other companies such as OpenAI. The technology company will pay $676 million for a factory previously used by Sharp to produce LCD panels and will convert it into an artificial intelligence data center.

OpenAI intends to bring its foundational AI models to the Japanese market using graphics processing units for model development at the Sakai plant. SB OpenAI Japan, a joint venture between SoftBank and OpenAI, will train models using customer data obtained through marketing and other activities. The joint venture will then sell customized AI agents to customers, according to a Nikkei report.

The data center plan underscores that SoftBank and OpenAI are scaling up their collaboration.

The two technology companies announced their joint venture in Japan following OpenAI's collaboration with SoftBank, Oracle, and other companies to build several data centers in the United States. The Japanese telecommunications giant is also investing in OpenAI. Negotiations have been ongoing for several months, and according to the latest reports, SoftBank is investing up to $25 billion in OpenAI at a valuation of nearly $300 billion. However, the fundraising is not yet complete and has not been officially announced.

SoftBank acquired the factory approximately 10 months after signing a memorandum of understanding to build a large AI data center at the plant previously used by Sharp for LCD panel production.

SoftBank plans to begin operations in 2026. SoftBank expects the former LCD panel manufacturing plant to have sufficient capacity to operate an AI data center, initially around 150 megawatts, and later more than 240 megawatts.

The Sakai facility will become SoftBank's third data center. The company already has a data center in Tokyo, and another is under construction in Hokkaido.

Source: TechCrunch