An assessment said demand for backup batteries used in data centres is surging as AI infrastructure expands, leaving related products effectively in a sold-out state for months.

According to IT outlet TechRadar on March 30, Panasonic said orders for backup batteries installed in data centre racks are rising rapidly, with stable power demand driven by the spread of AI systems as the key backdrop. It added it has already allocated about 80 percent of planned production to existing customers, leaving new data centre operators to compete for limited remaining volumes.

The batteries are installed inside server racks and keep systems running during brief power outages, preventing downtime. With AI workloads costly to interrupt, requirements for uninterrupted operation are strengthening, making power backup devices a key element of data centre operations. The industry interprets this as a sign that constraints are spreading beyond existing bottlenecks such as graphics processing units and memory to power infrastructure components.

A shortage of semiconductor memory (RAM) has continued recently, and concerns have also been raised that supply instability could spread to storage devices and central processing units. Panasonic's case is cited as showing that this pressure is expanding into areas of components that had drawn less attention.

To meet demand, Panasonic is pushing to increase lithium-ion cell production in Japan by about threefold and to convert part of its automotive battery production lines for data centre use. It is also reviewing the possibility of additional production using its Kansas plant in the United States. The company said these steps are an attempt to reallocate production capacity to meet compute-related demand as AI systems expand.

The company is also developing supercapacitors as a next-generation alternative. They can store more energy than existing capacitors and discharge more gradually, and are expected to serve as auxiliary power sources that absorb fluctuations in power loads. The target launch is in fiscal 2027.

Panasonic forecast that data centre-related battery revenue will reach about 800 billion yen, or about 7.7 trillion won, by 2029. It said it remains uncertain whether it can meet actual demand. The industry sees the pace of supply chain responses as a key variable, as the expansion of AI data centres is widening bottlenecks beyond computing equipment into power and infrastructure.