SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has announced a $500 billion AI data center campus at a former uranium enrichment site in Ohio—the largest single-site investment in history. With 21 Japanese and American companies involved and 9.2 GW of gas-fired power, this project reshapes the global AI infrastructure race. Here's what Japan thinks.
Japanese startup DOT P unveiled PONKEY, a solenoid-powered instrument robot, at SXSW 2026 in Austin, Texas. Featuring 16 custom-designed keys that light up, produce sound, and physically pop out, PONKEY functions as a drum machine, digital synthesizer, and AI communication device. Backed by Tokyo's TOKYO SUTEAM program, it's set for public release in 2027.
Sakana AI, the Tokyo-based startup founded by former Google researchers, has raised $135M to reach a record $2.65B valuation — making it Japan's top unicorn. Citibank made its first-ever strategic investment in a Japanese company through this round. With backing from the CIA's venture arm and Google, Sakana is spearheading Japan's push for sovereign AI.
Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has joined the AI-RAN Alliance, an international consortium turning cell towers into AI processing hubs. With SoftBank, NVIDIA, Samsung, and other tech giants on board, this move signals Japan's commitment to distributed AI infrastructure and its strategic positioning in the US-China tech race heading into the 6G era.
The explosive growth of AI data centers is creating a golden age for power electronics. With tens of thousands of GPUs fluctuating power equivalent to a nuclear plant by over 50%, Japanese makers like Mitsubishi Electric, Fuji Electric, and Toshiba see a massive opportunity. Includes US and Europe comparisons.
Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo have developed DIVE, a multi-agent AI workflow that automatically reads and structures experimental data from scientific paper figures. By extracting over 30,000 data points from 4,000+ papers, the system proposed new hydrogen storage materials in just 2 minutes. Here's how this AI reading team is unlocking data trapped inside research charts.
Fujitsu begins domestic manufacturing of sovereign AI servers in March 2026 at its Ishikawa factory. With NVIDIA's latest GPUs and its own MONAKA processor, Japan reinforces digital sovereignty amid rising geopolitical AI infrastructure concerns.
NTT and TBS have launched the "e6 project," a joint venture to build an AI-powered theme park where stories adapt to each child in real time. Their first original IP, "Emotional Knight," will expand into anime, games, and merchandise. Explore how Japan is pioneering AI-driven edutainment to nurture children's decision-making skills.
Japan's government launches public solicitation for regulatory barriers to AI adoption. From AI-assisted cancer screening to AI contract drafting concerns, discover how Japan is tackling regulation reform in healthcare and legal fields.
Kyoto-based SaaS company Questetra has integrated MCP (Model Context Protocol) into its no-code workflow platform. Users can now check task progress and analyze business processes simply by chatting with AI. Here's how the fusion of no-code tools and AI standards is reshaping workplace efficiency — and what people around the world think about it.
Ibiden, the dominant supplier of IC package substrates to NVIDIA and Intel, has announced a massive $3.2 billion investment plan over three years to boost production capacity 2.5x. Discover how this Japanese manufacturer in Gifu Prefecture is positioning itself as the backbone of the global AI infrastructure boom.