SoftBank Corp. is set to acquire a defunct Sharp LCD panel factory in Osaka for about ¥100 billion ($676 million) to transform it into a major artificial intelligence data center, according to Nikkei.
The Japanese telecom company plans to sign the acquisition contract as early as Friday for the facilities and part of the land at Sharp’s former TV liquid crystal display plant in Sakai. The site was selected for its long-term electricity supply capabilities, essential for powering AI operations.
Construction will begin in fiscal 2025, with operations expected to start in 2026. The facility will initially have a power capacity of 150 megawatts, making it one of Japan’s largest data centers, with plans to expand to 250 megawatts by fiscal 2028.
SoftBank will partner with OpenAI to develop and commercialize AI agents at the location—autonomous programs designed to make decisions and execute tasks based on user parameters. The collaboration marks the first global commercialization of OpenAI’s AI agent base model.
A joint venture between SoftBank Corp., its parent SoftBank Group, and OpenAI will customize these AI agents for client companies using their human resources and marketing data.
The full operation will require approximately 100,000 GPUs, pushing total investment toward ¥1 trillion ($6.7 billion). Equipment will likely be sourced from Nvidia and the Stargate Project, a recent SoftBank Group venture.
For Sharp, the sale represents a financial lifeline after posting ¥410 billion in losses over the past two years due to poor LCD panel performance.
