Sakura Internet shares surged as much as 20.2% after Microsoft announced discussions to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure in Japan in partnership with the company and SoftBank. The rally reflects investor optimism around Sakura’s role in domestic AI compute expansion.
Microsoft said it plans to invest $10 billion in Japan between 2026 and 2029 to scale AI infrastructure, enhance cybersecurity, and train up to one million engineers by 2030. The initiative includes deploying GPU-based computing resources within Japan, allowing data processing to remain local and supporting the development of domestic AI models.
Sakura Internet, which operates local data centers, is expected to play a key role in providing infrastructure capacity. The partnership also includes discussions around integrating Microsoft Azure with SoftBank’s AI computing platform to expand enterprise access to high-performance computing.
The announcement came during a visit by Microsoft President Brad Smith, highlighting growing demand for AI services in Japan. Adoption rates are rising, with roughly one in five working-age individuals reportedly using generative AI tools.
The deal underscores increasing global competition to localize AI infrastructure and reduce reliance on foreign data centers. As countries prioritize data sovereignty and compute capacity, partnerships between global cloud providers and regional infrastructure firms are becoming central to AI deployment strategies.
