Shifting production from automotive to compute and working on supercapacitors as another way to protect workloads

Major memory makers have already sold all the kit they can make this year, creating shortages and price increases. Datacenter infrastructure buyers may soon face the same issues when trying to get their hands on backup batteries.

Japanese giant Panasonic on Wednesday outlined its plans to triple production capacity for lithium-ion cells at its Japanese factories by expanding existing facilities and adapting some of its automotive manufacturing facilities to make batteries. The company is also considering adapting its Kansas plant to make more datacenter batteries.

The reason for this push is AI, which Panasonic notes is stoking demand for servers and therefore also for sources of backup power. The Japanese company therefore thinks that by 2029 it can sell ¥800 billion (US$5 billion) of batteries in its 2029 financial year, roughly quadrupling its current sales.

Panasonic claims customers have already agreed to buy around 80 percent of the products ...