Japanese telecommunications firm KDDI plans to transform a former Sharp LCD manufacturing facility in Sakai, Osaka, into a large-scale AI data center. According to a recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) announced by both Sharp Corporation and KDDI, the site—known as Green Front Sakai—will be redeveloped, with KDDI acquiring the land, buildings, and electrical infrastructure from Sharp.
Construction of the AI data center is expected to begin by the end of March 2025. The company aims to bring the facility fully online by the end of March 2026. KDDI previously indicated that this center will house Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 server racks, designed for training and running AI models.
This development follows earlier reports from May, when Foxconn, Sharp’s parent company, was said to be considering closing the existing plant to address declining LCD revenues and repurposing the site for data center use. Sharp and KDDI had previously revealed their intent to partner with IT suppliers Supermicro and Datasection to deploy Nvidia-based AI systems at the location. Now, it seems the three partners will move forward without Sharp.
