The Japanese display industry is undergoing a profound change. Sharp, a giant used for large LCD panel production of TVs, has completely stopped production in 2024, marking the end of the era of manufacturing large-sized LCD panels in Japan. This change not only reflects the fierce competition in the global display market, but also reveals the challenges and opportunities of Japan's manufacturing industry in technological innovation and industrial upgrading.
However, this once silent factory is about to usher in a brand new vitality. According to the Nikkei Shimbun, SoftBank Group officially signed an agreement on Friday to invest about 100 billion yen (equivalent to about 4.877 billion yuan) to acquire Sharp's old factory in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture and part of its land. SoftBank's move aims to transform it into a large-scale data center and plans to work closely with OpenAI, an innovative leader in artificial intelligence, to jointly promote the commercialization of AI agent technology. This strategic layout not only provides strong infrastructure support for SoftBank's development in the field of AI, but also injects new vitality into the transformation and upgrading of Japan's manufacturing industry.
In fact, SoftBank disclosed its acquisition intention as early as December last year, and plans to acquire part of the land and related buildings of the Sharp Sakai monitor LCD panel factory for the same price of 100 billion yen. The land area involved in this transaction is about 450,000 square meters, and the total construction area reaches about 840,000 square meters. It is on this vast land and building that SoftBank plans to build its huge AI data center. This move not only makes full use of existing industrial resources, but also provides a solid foundation for future technological development.
According to SoftBank's strategic plan, the data center will focus on using data provided by corporate customers to customize and train advanced AI models, thereby providing these companies with exclusive AI agent services. The project is expected to be officially put into operation in 2026, with a power capacity of up to 150 megawatts, and is expected to become one of the largest computing infrastructure in Japan. This data center will not only enhance SoftBank's technical strength in the field of AI, but will also provide strong computing power support for the development of the AI industry in Japan and even the world.
It is worth noting that the area of the land sold to SoftBank this time accounts for about 60% of its entire Sakai factory. In addition to reaching important cooperation with SoftBank, Sharp also signed a memorandum of understanding with Japanese telecom operator KDDI. According to the memorandum, KDDI will also purchase part of the land at the Sharp Sakai plant to build its own AI data center, with the goal of starting construction work within this fiscal year and planning to fully put into operation within one year. This means that factories that once focused on display production will transform into the core computing power engine supporting the development of Japan's artificial intelligence industry in the future. This transformation not only brought new development opportunities to Sharp, but also provided a new direction for the transformation and upgrading of Japan's manufacturing industry.