Supporting AI Infrastructure and Social Operations—Panasonic Group’s Evolving Growth Strategy

On May 12, 2026, the Panasonic Group announced its Group Growth Strategy for 2032 alongside its financial results for the fiscal year that ended in March 2026¹. The Group chose to present this announcement specifically as a growth strategy rather than as a conventional mid-term management plan. What is the rationale behind that decision? What is the Group’s value proposition as it enters a growth phase following the recent management reforms? And what are the pathways to growth for the Devices and Solutions areas?

The following interview with Group CEO Yuki Kusumi sheds more light on the details of the Group Growth Strategy.

1 In this article, fiscal years end on March 31 of the stated year.

Rather than a conventional mid-term management plan, you chose to pursue a Group Growth Strategy with an eye toward 2032. Could you explain the thinking behind this decision and share your thoughts on the growth strategy?

Kusumi: Historically, our Group has formulated and reviewed management plans on a three-year cycle as part of our mid-term management plan. However, given the rapid pace of social change and technological advancement, conditions can shift dramatically in a matter of years. This means that in addition to maintaining our long-term vision, we need to constantly think about changes that need to be made today. For this reason, we have shifted to an approach that involves making annual adjustments while refining our strategy with a view toward the next three to six years. That is why we presented our plan as the Group Growth Strategy and not as a conventional mid-term management plan.

I would like to note that the growth strategy was not formulated solely on the basis of decisions made by Panasonic Holdings Corporation (PHD), the Group holding company. Starting this fiscal year, we have overhauled our executive officer structure to create a system in which the heads of each operating company serve as “Business CEOs,” holding positions equivalent to PHD executive officers. We did this to ensure that decisions are made from the perspective of Group-wide optimization and to make it clear that Business CEOs are responsible for aligning operating company strategies to the Group’s overall strategy. The Group Growth Strategy is the first outcome of the extensive discussions held under this new framework.

The year 2032 marks the 100th anniversary of the milestone when our founder, Konosuke Matsushita, announced our “250-year plan” in 1932 to achieve an “ideal society with affluence both in matter and mind.” This is the Group’s true mission, or Meichi. As we approach this milestone, we must not only convey our core philosophy but also clearly demonstrate how the Group will achieve growth—explaining to everyone the growth drivers, what actions we will take, and then steadily executing the plan. This growth strategy is the first step toward that goal.

The Group Growth Strategy outlines Panasonic Group’s “contribution toward 2032.” How will this be achieved?

Kusumi: With our gaze set firmly on 2032, we used the announcement to express our determination to contribute to society by pursuing goals such as using energy more efficiently and alleviating frontline labor shortages, and by focusing on businesses that support AI infrastructure and social operations. These are areas where Panasonic Group can leverage its competitive strengths to make meaningful contributions.

Kusumi: By continuously delivering value across each business area under this roadmap, we will seek to achieve an adjusted operating profit (AOP) of 600 billion yen in fiscal year 2027 and more than 750 billion yen in fiscal year 2029. The period up to fiscal year 2029 has been designated as Phase 1, and the Devices area will drive Group growth during this phase. More specifically, the Group will support AI infrastructure through an integrated portfolio of data center energy storage systems, high-performance multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) materials able to accommodate advancements in GPUs², ASICs³, and CPUs⁴, and conductive polymer capacitors.

Meanwhile, in the Solutions area, we will strengthen our services and engineering to support the transformation of our business model to further contribute to the evolution of our customers’ operations. These efforts will position the Solutions area as the core of profit growth for Group revenue starting in fiscal year 2030, which marks the beginning of Phase 2.

2 GPU: Graphics Processing Unit
3 ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit
4 CPU: Central Processing Unit

Kusumi: The Smart Life area—our consumer electronics business—plays a vital role supporting the Panasonic Group brand. Consumer electronics also represent the business area through which the largest number of customers come into contact with our brand. We believe that earning the trust of many customers through our consumer electronics will enhance positive perceptions of Panasonic as a whole and lead to increased recognition and trust in our B2B business as well.

The consumer electronics business will rigorously pursue global-standard cost efficiencies and enhance its competitiveness to achieve high profitability and sustainable growth. Where products can be differentiated on the strength of proprietary core technologies, these unique features will be emphasized so that customers can truly experience the Panasonic difference. Advertising and marketing efforts will also be strengthened to raise awareness among a wider audience and enable them to experience the value of our products firsthand. In addition, we will create a cycle that broadens positive customer perception of Panasonic consumer electronics, including through word-of-mouth on social media. On the other hand, we will adopt an asset-light model for products where affordability is prioritized over features and performance.

Given that it will be a major driver of growth by 2028, can you explain what the “businesses supporting AI infrastructure” are? What growth opportunities do they represent for the Panasonic Group?

Kusumi: Businesses supporting AI infrastructure, mainly in the Devices area, provide support for the “brain” and “heart” of AI servers found in generative AI data centers. Specifically, Panasonic Industry’s high-performance multilayer PCB materials and conductive polymer capacitors are expanding their applications to include the circuits surrounding GPUs, ASICs, and CPUs—which serve as the “brain” of AI processing—as well as various peripheral devices. Furthermore, Panasonic Energy’s energy storage systems for data centers will continue to contribute not only to backup power during outages but also to peak power suppression—a function that is becoming increasingly more critical as GPUs and ASICs evolve—within the power supply infrastructure that serves as the “heart” supplying electricity to these components. Through these initiatives, we will meet the demands of the rapidly growing market for generative AI data centers. Furthermore, we believe that in the future we will be able to expand the scope of our contributions to edge areas such as AI-driven autonomous driving and robotics.

Kusumi: The GPUs, ASICs, CPUs, and other components of AI servers are becoming increasingly more powerful to meet growing demand for AI processing, leading to higher power consumption and, naturally, a significant increase in heat generation. This means that components, such as the capacitors that support peripheral circuits, must maintain their capacitance and performance even in high-temperature environments. Our Group is addressing these needs by leveraging our proprietary chemical technologies.

Furthermore, the power consumed during AI processing can fluctuate significantly. Ensuring that a data center’s power supply is sufficient to meet the peak power demands of its AI servers can result in excessive capacity (infrastructure) and cost (power contracts). This situation also places significant cost and operational burdens on AI data center operators, including hyperscalers⁵. Given this situation, making use of battery backup units (BBUs) and capacitor backup units (CBUs) is essential for suppressing power peaks and absorbing power load fluctuations. In this field, both devices—such as battery cells and capacitors—and systems—such as BBUs and CBUs—must continue to evolve to meet increasingly sophisticated power supply requirements. Panasonic Group’s R&D capabilities, which enable us to achieve that evolution, are our greatest strength and the foundation from which we will continue to meet the needs of hyperscalers. 

5 A company that operates large-scale data centers and provides cloud services

Kusumi: For the businesses supporting AI infrastructure, we aim to achieve approximately 1.4 trillion yen in sales and 290 billion yen in AOP in fiscal year 2029. These numerical targets are based on forecasts for future demand that we have already received from our customers. On May 12, I announced that our “Award” win rate—that is, agreements to proceed with development and secured orders—for data center energy storage systems has reached 80% of our sales target. Since then, the rate has continued to rise, and we have secured Awards for nearly every product included in our sales target.

In response to growing demand and customer requests, we will invest a cumulative total of approximately 500 billion yen between fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2029 in the businesses supporting AI infrastructure, with the aim of rolling out and scaling up next-generation products and for enhancing our production capacity. As long as global investment in AI continues, construction and expansion of data centers is expected to see sustained growth. If we can successfully capture this demand, then achieving the Group’s 750 billion yen or more AOP target for fiscal year 2029 is well within reach.

What kind of growth trajectory do you envision for “businesses supporting social operations,” which will be the core of profit growth in the future?

Kusumi: Labor shortages are growing in severity across a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, logistics, and services. Compounded by rising energy costs and growing demand for environmental sustainability, the challenges faced by these industries are becoming more complex. However, social operations cannot be allowed to grind to a halt. So, what can be done? Our Group has long provided a wide range of hardware solutions to address the challenges that our customers face in the frontlines of their operations.

Businesses supporting social operations in the Solutions area leverage direct connections with customers’ frontlines to address their management challenges, using our service and engineering capabilities to provide “always-on, energy-saving and labor-saving” solutions. Our goal is to expand this value-added support and transform this business into a core source of revenue. Over the three-year period ending in fiscal year 2029, we will achieve this by shifting our focus from a hardware-centric business model to one that delivers value through services.

What is the rationale behind the Group’s current effort to reposition the Solutions area as a core revenue pillar? How can Panasonic transform its business model and achieve growth?

Kusumi: The term “solution” has a very broad meaning, and in the past was often used to refer to the combination of various elements tailored to a customer’s needs. However, we believe that a true solution must contribute to the customer’s business performance with increased sales and profits.

Our strength lies in our hardware already deployed in the field around the world. By addressing the unique challenges of various industries—such as manufacturing, logistics, and aviation—through our diverse hardware businesses, we have earned the trust of customers across a wide range of sectors. The products currently installed and operating in the market are referred to as Machines in the Field (MIF). Moving forward, we will use MIF as a starting point for expanding our service and engineering offerings—including consulting, operational support, maintenance, and system integration—while leveraging the power of AI and digital technology. Rather than only providing hardware, we must continuously deliver services that are difficult for competitors to replicate, thereby broadening the scope and duration of our contributions to customers. This is the direction of our growth in the Solutions area.

Panasonic Group already has businesses that generate revenue by combining services with maintenance. For example, in the office building sector, we had historically centered on the sale of hardware such as lighting equipment. But we are now generating service and maintenance revenue by providing energy management as part of our building management business. Although demand for traditional maintenance tasks, such as replacing fluorescent lights, has declined due to the widespread adoption of LED lighting, the need for energy conservation and measures to address rising energy prices is actually increasing. By capitalizing on these changes to build up our MIF, we believe we can expand our value proposition to include service and maintenance across all our businesses.

Kusumi: That said, the Solutions area still has challenges that require further refinement. For example, to what extent should we increase the ratio of service and maintenance revenue? How do we strengthen our ability to propose comprehensive solutions to customers in areas where connectivity has not yet advanced? These points need to be further defined. Ultimately, it is not simply a matter of increasing sales. From a profitability perspective, it is crucial to achieve this efficiently, and establishing a system that allows us to serve customers through a single point of contact is also a major challenge.

To grapple with these challenges, we have created the position of Solution Revenue Officer (SRO) under the new executive officer structure and appointed Hirofumi Suzuki, who brings extensive experience and deep insight from leading various solution businesses outside Panasonic. I asked him to take on this role because I felt he has consistently and thoroughly considered the question: “How do we help customers increase their revenue?” Rather than simply responding to customer requests, he identifies value creation opportunities that lead to sales and profits. I hope he will instill this fundamental mindset across our Group’s Solutions business.

Finally, a key objective behind the introduction of Business CEOs this fiscal year is to foster mutual learning based on the assets and expertise held by our operating companies—particularly within the Solutions area—and to leverage this knowledge in developing the Group’s strategy. We will establish a structure capable of providing sales, services, maintenance, and engineering as an integrated whole, and steadily drive transformation in the Solutions area.

What kind of company do you envision the Panasonic Group becoming, and what kind of growth do you expect the company to achieve in the future?

Kusumi: We need to consider this in terms of distinct time frames. This is because, even before we determine what kind of company we will become, the way we conduct our business will evolve in response to changing times. With that in mind, as I mentioned above, our focus through 2032 will be on “using energy more efficiently” and “alleviating frontline labor shortages.” Both are areas where our Group can make a competitive contribution, and to address these challenges, we will focus on businesses that support AI infrastructure and social operations.

Let me also emphasize that we are a company that operates in accordance with our Basic Business Philosophy. During the growth period of the 1970s and 1980s, our Group expanded to include many subsidiary companies because each of them made decisions under a system of autonomous and responsible management, based on the Basic Business Philosophy established by the founder, Konosuke Matsushita.

He always emphasized to employees the importance of upholding the Basic Business Philosophy, while also highlighting the importance of incorporating new ideas and building upon them.

What companies need is continuous “kaizen.” Not stopping with just one reform, but building on it and moving on to the next one is essential. If we want to achieve sustained growth, then we must never allow our drive for transformation and innovation to falter. Our Group has a motto: “Start anew every day.” Even beyond 2032, we will continue to respond to changing social conditions by implementing the necessary reforms. We believe that this cumulative effort will underpin our sustainable growth for the next 150 years.

It is said that the Panasonic Group’s growth has stagnated for the past 30 years. We must turn this situation around and pass the baton to the next generation. This strong conviction is shared not only by me, but by the Group management team. The large-scale management reforms we implemented Groupwide last fiscal year are merely the first step. I recognize that my most important responsibility as the current leader of this Group is to lay the groundwork for a return to a growth trajectory and to ensure a smooth transition to the next phase and beyond.