Panasonic: Over the next two years, will invest 500 billion yen in AI infrastructure.

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Panasonic is currently leveraging the investment boom in AI infrastructure to accelerate its strategic transformation, clearly positioning AI-related businesses as its future core growth engine.

According to Wednesday’s report, Panasonic CEO Yusuke Kanishi revealed a clear phased plan: over the next three years, the company will focus on capturing demand for energy storage systems, circuit materials, and electronic components brought by AI data center expansion; in the following three years, efforts will be concentrated on cultivating this business into a new-generation growth pillar.

To this end, Panasonic plans to invest about 500 billion yen in this area over the next two years, striving to raise related sales to about 1.4 trillion yen within three years. The market has responded positively to this strategy—Panasonic’s share price has doubled this year, with its market value climbing to around 11.5 trillion yen, reaching a historic high.

In order to free up resources for its AI business, Panasonic is simultaneously expanding the scope of its restructuring. The global layoff scale has been raised from the initially planned 10,000 people to up to 12,000 people. It’s estimated that from fiscal year 2024, annual cost savings will rise to 145 billion yen, providing stronger financial support for emerging businesses.

Energy Storage Systems Become a Key Entry Point for AI Data Centers

Panasonic’s core competitiveness in the AI infrastructure track is centered on its energy storage battery system business.

Yusuke Kanishi stated, “The graphics processors (GPUs) powering AI servers consume enormous amounts of electricity, and Panasonic’s energy storage battery systems play a critical role in flattening demand peaks and valleys, smoothing out peak electricity consumption.” He stressed that collaboration with major cloud computing operators in the AI data center field is a key source of competitiveness for the company’s energy storage system business.

This arrangement aligns with the overall trend of the Japanese AI supply chain benefiting from the industry. The Bank of Japan recently announced that robust AI exports are providing a boost to Japan’s economy. At the same time, flash memory chip supplier Kioxia Holdings Corp and fiber optic cable manufacturer Fujikura Ltd have also benefited from demand in the AI industry.

Restructuring Existing Assets, Establishing AI as Core Growth Driver for the Next Decade

Panasonic is advancing strategic business restructuring, optimizing existing assets as it expands. Yusuke Kanishi revealed that the company plans to convert an idle production facility in the US—whose capacity was left unused following a reduction in Tesla car battery orders—into a manufacturing base for uninterrupted power supply systems.

This move reflects Panasonic’s overall strategy to accelerate breaking away from dependence on home appliances and, beyond its role as a core supplier to Tesla, develop new growth drivers. Yusuke Kanishi said in an interview: “We must treat change as normal and always be prepared to flexibly adjust our direction.”

Looking at a longer cycle, Panasonic announced last year that it will fully integrate AI in both software and hardware, establishing a partnership with AI company Anthropic, aiming to raise the proportion of AI-related revenue to 30% over the next decade.

Yusuke Kanishi divided the next six years into two stages: the first three years focus on seizing the current market opportunity brought by AI infrastructure building, and the latter three years focus on cultivating relevant business into new pillars of growth. He said: “For the next three years, we must seize this opportunity; for the following three years, we’ll turn it into the next growth engine.”

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