According to a report by Nikkei, SoftBank plans to acquire a former Sharp LCD panel factory located in Sakai City, Osaka, Japan, to transform it into a data center that will operate an artificial intelligence agent developed in collaboration with OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT.
It is reported that SoftBank and OpenAI will sign the agreement for the acquisition of the factory and land as early as today (14th), with the purchase price expected to be around 100 billion yen (approximately HK$5.245 billion). SoftBank believes that the location has sufficient power supply to support the operation of the data center.
The report describes this plan as Japan's first and the world's first commercialization of OpenAI's foundational AI agent model. OpenAI will introduce the necessary graphics processing units (GPUs) for development and will establish the model at the Sakai factory. Additionally, the factory will also develop and operate SoftBank's generative AI foundational model, which is expected to be leased to companies and research institutions in Japan.
According to the report, SoftBank's AI data center is planned to begin construction in the fiscal year 2025, to start operations in 2026. When the data center begins operations, its initial capacity is expected to be around 150 megawatts, and by the fiscal year 2028, the capacity may increase to 250 megawatts, making it one of Japan's largest computing infrastructure facilities.
The report also mentioned that the GPUs for this project might be sourced from Nvidia and the StarGate project.
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