Softbank has taken an important step in line with its goal of expanding artificial intelligence operations in Japan. The technology giant announced that it will buy a factory used by Sharp for the production of LCD panels for 676 million dollars within the scope of strategic cooperation with OpenAI. Softbank, who takes over the Sharp Sakai Factory in Osaka, plans to restructure this place as an artificial intelligence data center.
The purchasing agreement between Softbank and Sharp covers both the land and buildings of the factory. The company will pay 100 billion yen (676 million dollars) for this investment.
This move is considered a critical step for Softbank to implement artificial intelligence projects. Training, operating and scaling of productive artificial intelligence models requires large data center capacities. Therefore, having a strong infrastructure is of great importance in terms of the success of the cooperation between Softbank and OpenAI.
Regarding the plans to present Softbank’s OpenAI models to the Japan market, the company officials drew attention to the cooperation with the OpenAI on the introduction of the institutional artificial intelligence system called “Cristal Intelligence”. OpenAI refrained from commenting on this purchase.
According to Nikkei, the OpenAI plans to offer its own artificial intelligence models to the Japan market and will carry out model development works using GPUs at the Sakai facility. SB OpenAI Japan, the joint venture of Softbank and OpenAI, will train artificial intelligence models using customer data and offer customized artificial intelligence solutions to companies.
This investment shows that Softbank and OpenAI have expanded its joint work in the field of artificial intelligence. The two companies’ joint attempt in Japan follow OpenAI’s similar data center projects with Oracle and other companies in the United States.
SoftBank is preparing to invest in big in OpenAI
On the other hand, Softbank is preparing to make a major investment in OpenAI. The company plans to make an investment of approximately $ 25 billion in OpenAI and aims to increase OpenAI’s valuation to $ 300 billion. However, this investment process has not yet been completed and no official announcement has been made.
Softbank’s decision to purchase the Sakai factory came after the company’s agreement to establish a large -scale artificial intelligence data center in this facility 10 months ago. In 2026, the company aims to enter the data center operation. The factory, which was built for LCD production, is expected to have an energy capacity of 150 megawatts at the beginning and will be above 240 megawatts in the future.
Sakai Facility will be Softbank’s third data center in Japan. The company already has a data centered in Tokyo and the construction of a second facility in Hokkaido continues. This new investment is seen as part of Softbank’s strategy to increase the impact of artificial intelligence in Japan.