SoftBank Plans to Make Large-Scale Batteries for AI Data Centers

SoftBank Group Corp.’s mobile unit said it plans to begin large-scale battery cell manufacturing at its Sakai, Osaka plant to address growing power demand for AI services.

SoftBank Corp. will partner with South Korea’s Cosmos Lab and DeltaX Co. to enable mass production from the fiscal year starting next April, the company said in a statement Monday. The aim is to output energy storage systems at a scale of one gigawatt-hour per year, SoftBank said, which would make it one of the largest facilities in Japan, according to data from BloombergNEF. SoftBank could scale up to a capacity of several GWh, Bloomberg News reported last month.