en.Wedoany.com Reported - Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has announced the establishment of a new battery storage business unit under its mobile network operator subsidiary, SoftBank Corp., which will be responsible for both battery technology research and development, as well as manufacturing.

The new unit has entered into technical collaborations with two South Korean companies—Cosmos Lab, which specializes in zinc-halogen battery cell technology, and DeltaX Co., an energy storage system manufacturer producing "next-generation" battery cells. Zinc-halogen batteries use purified water as an electrolyte, eliminating the flammability risks associated with lithium-ion batteries.

The battery business unit will focus on supporting SoftBank's AI data center in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. SoftBank plans to establish two new campuses in the area: the AX Factory, focusing on AI data center operations and AI infrastructure hardware manufacturing; and the GX Factory, serving as a manufacturing hub for next-generation batteries, solar cells, and related products.

The company plans to deploy a battery factory with an annual production capacity of 1 gigawatt-hour (GWh), with the potential to expand to several GWh per year in the future. Even with just the initial capacity of 1 GWh, the factory will be one of the largest battery plants in Japan. Initial production is expected to begin in March 2028, with mass production targeted for 2029.

Batteries produced in the initial phase will be used to support SoftBank's own AI data centers, with future expansion to supply commercial customers, including potential clients for "grid applications, factories and other industrial uses, as well as residential applications" in Japan, and plans to expand into global markets in the medium term. SoftBank aims for the business to generate approximately 100 billion yen ($637 million) in annual revenue by the end of this decade.

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