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What to watch for after Jensen Huang’s Japan visit
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang spent July 15-16 in Tokyo securing Japan-wide AI and robotics deals, including a national AI factory, robotics partnerships, and chip-material agreements, targeting physical AI for factory floors and machines. The visit produced three major projects: Noetra, a sovereign-AI consortium backed by 44 domestic firms and up to ¥1 trillion ($6.2 billion) over five years, with Nvidia building a Vera Rubin AI factory (13,750 Vera CPUs, 27,500 Rubin GPUs, 140 MW) expected by 2028; a robotics coalition including Fanuc, Yaskawa, Kawasaki Heavy, Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, Sony, SoftBank, Kubota, and AIRoA adopting Nvidia’s Cosmos 3 Edge models on Jetson Thor chips; and Toyota committing to Nvidia’s Drive platform for next-gen vehicles and manufacturing simulations. Japan aims to deploy 10 million AI-equipped robots across 18 sectors by 2040, backed by $65 billion in public-private investment, targeting over 30% of the global AI robotics market valued at ¥20 trillion ($133 billion). Huang appeared with trade minister Ryosei Akazawa and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, emphasizing Japan’s sovereign push for domestic AI compute while relying on American silicon. The Noetra factory, billed as “the world’s first national AI infrastructure,” trains trillions-of-parameter foundation models for physical AI, with three stages: a reasoning model (fiscal 2026), omni-modal (2028), and Real-world Native AI for robots (2030). The Takaichi administration’s growth plan targets ¥370 trillion ($2.3 trillion) in investment by 2040, centering AI and semiconductors. Huang’s two-day blitz included meetings with Toyota, Fanuc, Yaskawa, Fujitsu, Kawasaki CEOs, and supply-chain chiefs, mirroring his Taiwan keynote and Seoul GPU deal.