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The new unit will support SoftBank’s expansive AI data centre ambitions
In a press release issued today, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has announced the creation of a new battery storage business operating under its mobile network operator unit, SoftBank Corp.
The standalone unit will work on both the technical development of battery technologies, as well as their manufacture.
To do this, the new unit has partnered with a pair of South Korean businesses – Cosmos Lab and DeltaX Co. – with whom they will collaborate on the technology.
Cosmos Lab specialises in battery cell technology, most notably zinc-halogen batteries that use pure water as their electrolyte, removing the flammability risk associated with lithium-ion batteries.
DeltaX Co. is an energy storage system manufacturer that builds ‘next-generation’ battery cells
The battery business unit will be focussed alongside SoftBank’s AI Data Center that is in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. Here, SoftBank is planning to set up two new sites: the AX Factory, focussed on AI data centre operations and AI infrastructure hardware manufacturing, and the GX Factory, a manufacturing hub for next-generation batteries, solar panels, and related products.
The company is aiming to deploy a plant with battery capacity of one gigawatt-hour per year, which could expand to multiple gigawatt-hours per year in future.
Even at just one gigawatt-hour per year, the deployment would already be one of the largest battery plants in Japan.
Initial production is expected to begin in March 2028, with mass production targeted for 2029.
Initially, the batteries produced will be used to support SoftBanks own AI data centres, but in future will expand to offering the batteries to commercial customers. These could include “grid applications in Japan, as well as for factories and other industrial uses, as well as for residential use, with a view to expanding into global markets over the medium term”, according to the company.
In total, SoftBank is aiming for the business to generate around ¥100 billion (US$637 million) in annual revenues by the end of the decade.
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