What to watch for after Jensen Huang's Japan visit
Jensen Huang left Tokyo with deals spanning Japan's entire tech ecosystem. Nvidia's chief Jensen Huang spent two days - July 15 and 16 - in Tokyo, courting Japan's industrial and chip-supply elite, weeks after a keynote in Taiwan, and months after a visit to South Korea . He left with deals spanning Japan's entire tech ecosystem: a national AI factory, partnerships with the country's leading robotics companies, and agreements with the chip-material suppliers powering Nvidia's next generation of AI chips.
Key Takeaways
- Nvidia is targeting Japan's factory floor, and many of the country's biggest manufacturers are joining in.
AI's next chapter, Huang said, belongs to factory floors, robots, and machines, and he wants Japan to build it.
- 2 billion) over five years , a bet on homegrown "physical AI," foundation models built to run machines.
- The robotics coalition - Japan's industrial giants line up behind Cosmos.
Nvidia is targeting Japan's factory floor, and many of the country's top robotics and manufacturing players are signing on.
- "Japan invented modern manufacturing.
Now, it has the opportunity to reinvent it for the age of intelligent industries.
- Facing a shrinking workforce, Japan wants 10 million AI-equipped robots across 18 sectors by 2040, backed by $65 billion in public and private physical-AI investment .
Stats & Key Facts
- #Thirty years ago, a $5 million Sega investment helped keep a near-bankrupt Nvidia afloat; today, Nvidia and Japan's industrial giants need each other again - this time to build the physical-AI era, starting with these three projects: Noetra - Japan's sovereign-AI play.
- #Tokyo is committing up to 1 trillion yen ($6.
- #2 billion) over five years , a bet on homegrown "physical AI," foundation models built to run machines.
- #Noetra's plan runs in three stages : a reasoning model heavy on Japanese-language skills starting in fiscal 2026; an omni-modal version handling text, images, video, and audio by 2028; and "Real-world Native AI" built to run robots by 2030, released to outside Noetra developers in phases.
Nvidia is targeting Japan's factory floor, and many of the country's biggest manufacturers are joining in. AI's next chapter, Huang said, belongs to factory floors, robots, and machines, and he wants Japan to build it. Thirty years ago, a $5 million Sega investment helped keep a near-bankrupt Nvidia afloat; today, Nvidia and Japan's industrial giants need each other again - this time to build the physical-AI era, starting with these three projects: Noetra - Japan's sovereign-AI play.
The country doesn't want to run its factories and robots on American or Chinese AI. So, the government pulled together roughly 44 domestic firms, with SoftBank, Sony, NEC, and Honda at the core, to build its own AI for robots, vehicles, and factory floors. Tokyo is committing up to 1 trillion yen ($6.
chip giant is building "a Vera Rubin AI factory," a massive data center packed with its next-generation chips, expected to launch in 2028, with 13,750 Vera CPUs and 27,500 Rubin GPUs , delivering 140 megawatts. Noetra will oversee the effort, with plans to build the data center. Noetra's plan runs in three stages : a reasoning model heavy on Japanese-language skills starting in fiscal 2026; an omni-modal version handling text, images, video, and audio by 2028; and "Real-world Native AI" built to run robots by 2030, released to outside Noetra developers in phases.
For more details please read the original article at TechCrunch AI.
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