Electronics company Sharp is working with telco KDDI to build what it claims will be Asia’s largest AI data center on the site of a former LCD screen manufacturing plant in Osaka, Japan.

The companies have signed an agreement with two other businesses, IT suppliers Supermicro and Datasection, to redevelop the Sakai plant as an AI data center hosting Nvidia hardware.

DCD reported last month that Foxconn, Sharp’s parent company, was planning to shut down the factory and turn it into a data center amid growing losses in its LCD division. The factory is set to close in September.

A statement from KDDI said the data center will host Nvidia GB200 NVL72s, the company’s newest server racks for training and running AI models. These racks each feature 72 GPUs built on Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture, announced earlier this year.

Further specifications of the data center have not been revealed, but a report in Asia Nikkei says it will host at least 1,000 servers. The KDDI statement simply says the site will be the largest AI data center in Asia.

“We expect that the former Sharp Sakai Plant will be able to provide adequate electric power and space to support the AI data center's electricity needs,” the statement said. “Datasection will support the operation of AI data center. KDDI will provide robust support to this project through the construction and operation of AI data center and network infrastructure.”

Supermicro will handle the liquid cooling required for the data center, building a system with piping, water towers, and monitoring equipment.

Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro, said the company was “excited” to be part of the project.

Liang added: "The new AI data center and the companies involved are a great example of the industry's commitment to green computing and the global expansion of AI."

KDDI is the parent company of Telehouse, which operates data centers around the world including across Asia.