Japan's display industry is undergoing a significant transformation. Sharp Corporation, once a giant in the production of large LCD panels for televisions, has completely ceased production at its Sakai Display Products Corporation (SDP) in 2024, marking the end of an era for large-scale LCD panel manufacturing in Japan.
However, the once-silent factory is poised for a new lease on life. According to the Nikkei newspaper, SoftBank Group has officially signed an agreement this Friday to acquire the former Sharp factory and part of its land in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, for approximately ¥100 billion (approximately ¥4.877 billion). SoftBank aims to transform the site into a large-scale data center and plans to collaborate closely with OpenAI, a leader in AI innovation, to commercialize AI agent technology.
In fact, SoftBank revealed its acquisition intentions last December, planning to purchase part of the land and buildings of the Sharp Sakai display LCD panel factory for the same ¥100 billion price. The transaction involves approximately 450,000 square meters of land and approximately 840,000 square meters of buildings. SoftBank plans to build its massive AI data center on this extensive land and building foundation.
According to SoftBank's strategic plan, this data center will focus on using data provided by enterprise clients to customize the training of advanced AI models, thereby providing these enterprises with exclusive AI agent services. The project is expected to be operational in 2026, with a power capacity of 150 megawatts, potentially becoming one of the largest computing infrastructures in Japan.
It's noteworthy that the land Sharp sold to SoftBank accounts for approximately 60% of its entire Sakai City factory. In addition to its significant partnership with SoftBank, Sharp has also signed a memorandum of understanding with KDDI, a Japanese telecommunications carrier. Under this memorandum, KDDI will also purchase part of the Sharp Sakai City factory site to build its own AI data center, aiming to start construction within this fiscal year and achieve full operation within one year. This means the factory, once focused on display production, will transform into a core computing engine supporting Japan's AI industry.
