Japan's Sharp begins taking domestic orders for AI servers made by Foxconn

Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corp. announced on Tuesday that it has commenced accepting domestic orders for artificial intelligence servers, which are manufactured by its Taiwanese subsidiary, Foxconn. In collaboration with multiple entities within Japan and internationally, Sharp is entering the rapidly growing domestic AI server market with the aim of fostering AI infrastructure development in the country. The company intends to commence sales of these servers in fiscal 2027, commencing from April of that year.

The AI servers, designed for local governments, research institutions, and data center operators, incorporate Nvidia Corp.'s most recent AI platform. Procurement and production of these servers are managed by Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Sharp anticipates achieving sales of around 250 billion yen ($1.6 billion) in fiscal 2030, while also aiming to expand the business globally in the future.

With the increasing integration of AI into societal infrastructure, Sharp's CEO, Tetsuji Kawamura, emphasized the importance of establishing a dependable computing foundation accessible to various companies. He described this major transition as a new growth opportunity for the company and highlighted its potential to contribute to the development of AI infrastructure and promote broader AI adoption in Japan.

AI servers are utilized for AI training and inference, where AI generates responses based on its acquired knowledge. Sharp projects the domestic server market to expand from approximately 900 billion yen in fiscal 2025 to roughly 4 trillion yen in fiscal 2030 and around 7 trillion yen in fiscal 2035. The company also considers the possibility of jointly producing servers with Foxconn in the future, with the Kameyama plant in Mie Prefecture, located in central Japan, potentially serving as a site for such joint production.