NVIDIA is positioning Japan as a central pillar in its global physical AI strategy.
This week, NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang made a high-profile appearance in Tokyo, engaging in a series of partnership signings and business meetings. According to reports, NVIDIA announced collaborations on Thursday with Japanese robotics giants Fanuc and Yaskawa Electric to advance robotics and AI technology development. Simultaneously, NVIDIA announced an expanded partnership with Toyota, covering areas such as autonomous driving, factory simulation, and urban intelligence. At a media event in Tokyo, Huang stated, "With AI, robots will become intelligent, adaptable, and accessible."
The strategic intent of this Japan visit is clear: NVIDIA is systematically integrating Japan's manufacturing base and semiconductor supply chain with its full-stack AI technology. In an interview, Huang dismissed concerns about an AI investment bubble, stating, "We are far from an AI bubble, demand is extremely strong," and emphasized, "We need to build infrastructure for at least a decade." He also indicated that NVIDIA would announce plans related to Japan's sovereign AI later in the week.
Notably, this visit also featured a historically significant reunion. Huang shared the stage with Shoichiro Irimajiri, the former president of Sega, who helped save NVIDIA from bankruptcy 30 years ago, adding an emotional layer to the business trip.
A Reunion in Akihabara: A Lifesaving Act from 30 Years Ago
Beyond business meetings, the most emotionally resonant moment of Huang's trip occurred at the former site of a Sega game center in Tokyo's Akihabara district.
According to Sega, Huang attended an event hosted by Sega on July 15, reuniting on stage with former president Shoichiro Irimajiri after many years. Huang expressed his gratitude at the event, stating, "If it weren't for everything Sega did, if it weren't for everything Shoichiro Irimajiri did, NVIDIA would not be here today."
This history dates back to around 1996. The then-fledgling NVIDIA was developing a graphics chip for Sega's next-generation console but faced a complete project failure due to a miscalculated technology bet, pushing the company to the brink of bankruptcy.
Huang proactively admitted the failure to Irimajiri, then Sega's vice president. Instead of pursuing accountability, Irimajiri pushed for Sega to invest approximately $5 million in the struggling startup. Huang once recalled:
"I told Irimajiri that if they invested this money in us, they would probably lose it all; but if they didn't, we would go out of business... He thought about it for a few days and told me: We'll invest."
With this funding, after a 60% staff reduction, NVIDIA rebooted and launched the RIVA 128 in 1997, later solidifying its market position in GPUs with products like the RIVA TNT and GeForce 256. Ironically, after NVIDIA's IPO in 1999 at a valuation of about $3 billion, Sega soon cashed out, selling its shares for roughly $15 million. Today, NVIDIA's market capitalization exceeds $5 trillion.
At this reunion, both sides announced a continuation of their collaboration—future Sega titles will support NVIDIA's newly launched RTX Spark platform, including the upcoming "VIRTUA FIGHTER CROSSROADS." The partnership between NVIDIA and Sega began 30 years ago when NVIDIA's NV1 chip provided graphics support for the PC version of the original "Virtua Fighter," one of the world's earliest 3D fighting games.
An Izakaya Dinner: Courting the Core of Japan's Semiconductor Supply Chain
The night before the official partnership announcements, Huang held a low-key yet significant dinner, effectively conducting a collective outreach to key nodes in Japan's AI supply chain.
According to a report, on the evening of July 15, Huang dined for about two hours with a group of executives from core Japanese supply chain companies at an izakaya in Tokyo's Kanda district.
Attendees included the CEO of advanced flash memory maker Kioxia, the head of global leading silicon wafer supplier Shin-Etsu Chemical, the leader of chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron, an executive from advanced chip packaging film supplier Ajinomoto, as well as the heads of fiber optic cable manufacturer Sumitomo Electric Industries and advanced capacitor producer Taiyo Yuden. Yuki Kusumi of Panasonic Holdings was also present.
It is reported that Huang and the group enjoyed skewers and offal hot pot, accompanied by Japanese whisky.
The guest list for this gathering almost outlined the entire Japanese hardware supply chain upon which NVIDIA's next-generation AI systems depend. An attendee mentioned conversations at the table about "everyone working together to promote the prosperity of industries like semiconductors and keep stock prices rising."
Outside the izakaya, a crowd gathered with smartphones, hoping to catch a glimpse of the AI era icon known on social media as "kawajan-san" (Mr. Leather Jacket). A 57-year-old tourist reportedly said outside the Sega event, "I think he is the most influential person on the planet."
Betting on Physical AI: Japan's Manufacturing as a 'Natural Ally'
The core strategic narrative of Huang's trip is positioning Japan as a key battleground for global physical AI development.
In a Tokyo interview, Huang stated, "This is a historic moment for Japan because Japan has traditionally excelled in precision manufacturing and mass production."
He believes AI can help Japan address its severe labor shortage, "Through automation, AI, and robotics, we can augment the existing workforce and enhance the nation's overall productivity."
In terms of specific collaborations, NVIDIA's partnerships with Fanuc and Yaskawa Electric target the intelligent upgrade of industrial robots. The collaboration with Toyota is more comprehensive:
Toyota is developing next-generation vehicles with L2++ functionality based on NVIDIA's DRIVE AGX platform and DriveOS operating system. It is also using NVIDIA's Megatron-LM to train AI coding assistant models compliant with MISRA standards to accelerate vehicle software engineering. Additionally, it is advancing factory digital twins and robot simulation using NVIDIA's Omniverse and Isaac Sim frameworks. Toyota's subsidiary Woven by Toyota is developing a multimodal vision-language model for urban traffic intelligence based on NVIDIA's H100 GPU.
NVIDIA Vice President Rishi Dhall stated, "Physical AI will bring intelligence to every moving machine, from cars, robots, trucks, to the cities and factories they operate in."
Full-Stack Expansion: From Healthcare and Finance to Quantum Computing
Beyond robotics and automotive, NVIDIA's partnership landscape in Japan extends to several key industries, demonstrating a systematic, full-stack penetration.
In healthcare and life sciences, several major Japanese pharmaceutical companies are leveraging NVIDIA's BioNeMo platform to accelerate AI drug discovery, including Eisai, Astellas, Daiichi Sankyo, and Ono Pharmaceutical. Canon has launched Japan's first NVIDIA-accelerated photon-counting CT system, while Fujifilm has commercialized Japan's first whole-body CT system equipped with NVIDIA Blackwell. Kawasaki Heavy Industries plans to use NVIDIA's Holoscan IGX, Isaac GR00T, and Cosmos platforms to develop surgical assistant robots and hospital transport robots.
In the financial sector, Mizuho Bank plans to build Japan's largest local AI factory for finance, starting with NVIDIA DGX B200 systems. The Japan Research Institute under Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group has already deployed an AI factory, using NVIDIA's Nemotron open models to transform financial data into intelligence. Rakuten Bank will utilize NVIDIA's Agent Toolkit to develop foundational trading models.
In quantum computing, two supercomputers powered by NVIDIA GB200 at Japan's RIKEN institute are now operational: RIKYU, equipped with 1,600 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, supports open foundational model development. The quantum-HPC system ROQUO integrates 540 Blackwell GPUs, achieving tight coupling with quantum computers on the RIKEN campus. Collaborations with institutions like Mitsubishi Chemical, Mizuho Bank, Keio University, and AIST have achieved a 13.4x acceleration in molecular spectroscopy analysis workflows compared to pure CPU nodes.
Additionally, market speculation suggests NVIDIA may announce collaboration with Japan's "Physical AI Model National Team" Noetra. Noetra, spearheaded by SoftBank and involving 44 Japanese companies including Honda and NEC, has received approximately 1 trillion yen in government subsidies.
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