TOKYO — “Competitiveness in artificial intelligence is directly linked to a country’s strength,” SoftBank Corp. President Junichi Miyakawa told Nikkei recently, expressing a view that lies behind the Japanese telecommunications company’s recent buildup in the field.
SoftBank said this month it had acquired a former liquid crystal display panel plant from Sharp for about 100 billion yen ($672 million), with plans to turn the facility in the city of Sakai into one of the country’s largest data centers.
