Sharp said Friday that it has signed a basic agreement to grant telecommunications carrier SoftBank Corp. exclusive negotiating rights for the partial sale of its Sakai plant in Osaka Prefecture. Sharp will halt production at the Sakai plant by the end of September as it scales down its liquid crystal display business. SoftBank plans to take over about 440,000 square meters, or about 60%, of the plant site and build a large data center for the development of generative artificial intelligence. It aims to start construction this autumn and put the data center into full operation in 2025. The price for the part of the plant site will be decided later. SoftBank plans to operate the data center on its own, while allowing external organizations such as universities and research institutions to use it.

BANGALORE, INDIA – SoftBank Group Corp. plans to announce within days that it will start a mobile digital payments service in Japan by the end of 2018, as billionaire founder Masayoshi Son seeks to expand in the sector, people familiar with the matter said. The service, a collaboration with Indian startup Paytm, will make extensive use of artificial intelligence for mobile payments and other financial services, the people said, asking to not be identified as the plans are private. An announcement is imminent, they said. Dozens of Paytm employees are working in Tokyo on getting the service up and running, one of the people said. Son, who created the world's largest technology investment fund, is moving into a crowded field as local banks and technology companies rush to stake their claims.

General Motors announced Thursday that Japan's SoftBank will pour $2.25 billion in the automaker's self-driving business, in a significant deal experts say boosts GM's chances to be the first company to deploy autonomous cars nationwide. In exchange for the investment, GM said the investment firm will receive a nearly 20 percent equity stake in GM Cruise, the Detroit company's autonomous vehicle unit. GM's stock soared following the announcement, climbing more than 10 percent in morning trading. The partnership comes as leading technology companies and automakers, including Alphabet's self driving division Waymo, and Tesla are scrambling to pioneer the market for fully autonomous cars. GM said in a press release Thursday the investments are expected to provide the capital necessary to "reach commercialization at scale" next year.

General Motors announced Thursday that Japan's SoftBank will pour $2.25 billion in the automaker's self-driving business, in a significant deal experts say boosts GM's chances to be the first company to deploy autonomous cars nationwide. In exchange for the investment, GM said the investment firm will receive a nearly 20 percent equity stake in GM Cruise, the Detroit company's autonomous vehicle unit. GM's stock soared following the announcement, climbing more than 10 percent in morning trading. The partnership comes as leading technology companies and automakers, including Alphabet's self driving division Waymo, and Tesla are scrambling to pioneer the market for fully autonomous cars. GM said in a press release Thursday the investments are expected to provide the capital necessary to "reach commercialization at scale" next year.

SoftBank Group is promising new services for its Pepper robot that will appeal to business users and help bring the humanoid to storefronts and reception areas. The company is developing a customer support package and a service that allows businesses to manage a fleet of Peppers, Fumihide Tomizawa, chief executive officer of SoftBank Robotics, said in an interview in Tokyo on Monday. The wireless carrier and Internet company investor will reveal more details of the service at the SoftBank World event July 30 and 31, he said. When Pepper went on sale to Japanese consumers on June 20, all 1,000 units sold out within one minute. SoftBank is targeting businesses to increase the robot's installed base which Tomizawa estimates would have to be in the hundreds of thousands to support a community of developers and an application store modeled on Apple Inc.'s.