Techin' Geek

Nvidia’s leader, Jensen Huang, dedicated two days — July 15 and 16 — in Tokyo, engaging Japan’s elite in industry and chip supply, shortly after a keynote in Taiwan and several months post a visit to South Korea. He departed with agreements encompassing all of Japan’s technology landscape: a state AI factory, collaborations with top robotics firms in the country, and contracts with chip-material vendors fueling the next generation of Nvidia’s AI chips. His point was unmistakable. Nvidia is aiming at Japan’s manufacturing sector, and numerous major manufacturers in the nation are on board. The next phase of AI, Huang declared, revolves around factory settings, robots, and machinery, and he aims for Japan to spearhead this development.

Three decades ago, a $5 million investment from Sega kept Nvidia from collapsing; today, Nvidia and Japan’s industrial powerhouses require each other once more — this time to forge the physical-AI age, commencing with three initiatives:

Noetra — Japan’s sovereign-AI initiative. The nation prefers not to depend on American or Chinese AI for its factories and robotics. Thus, the government assembled about 44 domestic companies, including SoftBank, Sony, NEC, and Honda, to create its own AI tailored for robots, vehicles, and manufacturing environments. Tokyo is pledging up to 1 trillion yen ($6.2 billion) over five years, betting on “physical AI” developed locally, foundation models designed to operate machinery. Japan seeks control over the software intellect. However, the hardware necessary for its creation still comes from Nvidia. The U.S. chip giant is constructing “a Vera Rubin AI factory,” a vast data center filled with its advanced chips, anticipated to open in 2028, featuring 13,750 Vera CPUs and 27,500 Rubin GPUs, generating 140 megawatts. Noetra will manage this initiative, intending to develop the data center. The Noetra project unfolds in three phases: a reasoning model focused on Japanese-language proficiency starting in fiscal 2026; an omni-modal variant managing text, images, video, and audio by 2028; and “Real-world Native AI” designed for running robots by 2030, to be gradually released to external Noetra developers.

The robotics alliance — Japan’s industrial leaders rally around Cosmos. Nvidia is zeroing in on Japan’s manufacturing sector, and many of the leading robotics and production figures in the nation are signing up. Fanuc, Yaskawa, Kawasaki Heavy, Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, Sony, SoftBank, Kubota, and the robotics consortium AIRoA have declared their intention to build upon Nvidia’s Cosmos models, an open-model initiative Nvidia launched in May with several international AI laboratories. In Tokyo, Nvidia provided them with a reason to commit, presenting Cosmos 3 Edge, a variation of the model that operates on its Jetson Thor chips integrated within the machines. Some are already experimenting with a shared control system; others, such as Honda R&D and Omron, are enhancing the tools presently. “The future of AI lies in the physical realm, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Japan,” Huang remarked in the company’s announcement. “Japan pioneered modern manufacturing. Now, it has a chance to revolutionize it for the era of intelligent industries.”

Toyota — vehicles and physical AI. Toyota incorporates Nvidia chips extensively throughout its systems. It dedicated its upcoming vehicles to Nvidia’s Drive platform at CES in January 2025; the updated work expands Nvidia’s reach into its manufacturing processes, where simulations are utilized to devise production lines, into the software governing its vehicles, and into systems interpreting road traffic. Toyota’s vehicles will utilize advanced driver assistance, which steers and brakes but still mandates a driver, a more cautious strategy compared to Waymo and Tesla, which are developing systems that rely less on human drivers.

Huang’s trip positioned physical AI at the core of Japan’s industrial strategy, and Tokyo is investing to support it. Confronted with a dwindling workforce, Japan aims for 10 million AI-equipped robots across 18 sectors by 2040, fueled by $65 billion in public and private investment in physical AI.

The long-term vision is even larger. Japan’s AI Robotics Strategy, unveiled in March, seeks to capture over 30% of the global AI robotics market by 2040, a market Tokyo estimates at around ¥20 trillion, or approximately $133 billion. METI is financing a domestic foundation model to operate the machines, with Noetra’s Nvidia-powered factory being the place where such expansive models, reaching into the trillions of parameters, would be trained. The belief is that Japan’s manufacturing data and base can catalyze advancement for physical AI.

Beyond industrial goals lies a sovereign aim. As the U.S. and China surge ahead in extensive AI, Tokyo desires its own data reservoirs, its own computing resources, and reduced reliance on infrastructure it cannot control. Huang appeared on July 16 alongside trade minister Ryosei Akazawa at the government’s physical-AI unveiling, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi participating via video link. The Takaichi administration has positioned AI and semiconductors at the heart of a growth strategy targeting ¥370 trillion ($2.3 trillion) in public and private investments by 2040. Noetra’s factory — marketed by Nvidia as “the world’s first national AI infrastructure” — signifies a notable commitment. Japan’s quest for self-sufficiency, for the time being, hinges on American chips.

In just two days, Huang engaged with nearly every pivotal figure in Japanese technology — the CEOs of Toyota, Fanuc, Yaskawa, Fujitsu, and Kawasaki during lunch, and numerous supply-chain leaders over skewers and whisky in a Kanda izakaya.

It mirrors the strategy he executed weeks prior — a homecoming keynote in Taiwan, fried chicken, and a 50,000-GPU agreement in Seoul last autumn. This time, it was Tokyo’s opportunity, encompassing robots, the supply chain, and the underlying chips.