RIKEN unveiled two supercomputers on the same day: RIKYU for AI for Science and ROQUO for quantum-HPC. Both are Japan's first to run GB200 NVL4 and Quantum-X800 InfiniBand. We compare them with US efforts like xAI's Colossus and the DOE Genesis Mission, and China, to read Japan's bet on purpose over scale.
Japan's next-gen supercomputer Fugaku NEXT bets against the cooling consensus: warming water above 30°C to cool AI servers and cutting cooling power by 20%. It may also adopt 'ZAM,' a new memory developed by SoftBank and Intel that stands DRAM chips on edge with magnetic-field coupling. Why Japan is choosing efficiency over the gigawatt-scale arms race that defines US Frontier and El Capitan.
