SoftBank plans to convert a former Sharp LCD panel factory in Japan into a major data centre to support the operation of artificial intelligence agents developed in collaboration with OpenAI, the U.S. company behind ChatGPT.
The Japanese telecom giant intends to acquire the facility and a portion of the land at Sharp’s shuttered TV LCD manufacturing plant in Osaka for an estimated 100 billion yen ($677.05 million).
Expected to begin operations in 2026, the new data centre will be one of the largest in Japan, with a power capacity of 150 megawatts.
The centre will serve as a hub for commercializing OpenAI’s AI agent models in Japan, with plans to use client companies’ data to train the models and offer customized AI solutions.
The project is expected to involve substantial investment, potentially nearing 1 trillion yen ($6.77 billion), according to the report.
Neither SoftBank nor OpenAI responded immediately to request for comment.
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