Source: Nikkei
SoftBank's move into alternative battery chemistry reflects Japan's explicit strategy to reduce supply chain exposure to Chinese mineral dominance. The 2027 timeline suggests these aren't speculative R&D projects but commercialization commitments, meaning Japanese data centers may soon run on different battery architectures than their U.S. and European counterparts, fragmenting the global infrastructure supply base along nationalist lines. The trade-off is direct: pursuing mineral independence through domestic manufacturing could mean accepting lower energy density or higher costs, which data center operators will pass to regional cloud customers.