Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Tokyo on July 15–16 to secure deals across Japan’s tech ecosystem, including a national AI factory, robotics partnerships, and chip-supply agreements.

Huang’s trip underscored Nvidia’s focus on “physical AI”—integrating artificial intelligence into factories, robots, and industrial machines. Japan, a global manufacturing leader, is a critical partner in this push.

Japan’s Sovereign AI: The Noetra Project

Japan is investing up to 1 trillion yen ($6.2 billion) over five years to develop homegrown AI for factories, robots, and vehicles. The Noetra consortium, led by SoftBank, Sony, NEC, and Honda, will build foundation models for “physical AI.”

Nvidia is supporting the effort with a Vera Rubin AI factory, a data center set to launch in 2028. Key specs include:

  • 13,750 Vera CPUs and 27,500 Rubin GPUs
  • 140 megawatts of power
  • Three-phase rollout: Japanese-language reasoning model (2026), omni-modal AI (2028), and robot-native AI (2030)

Robotics and Manufacturing: The Cosmos Coalition

Japan’s top industrial firms—Fanuc, Yaskawa, Kawasaki Heavy, Fujitsu, Hitachi, and others—are adopting Nvidia’s Cosmos models for AI-driven manufacturing. Nvidia unveiled Cosmos 3 Edge, designed to run on Jetson Thor chips inside machines.

Toyota, a long-time Nvidia partner, is expanding its use of Nvidia’s Drive platform for next-gen vehicles and AI-assisted manufacturing. The automaker’s approach prioritizes driver-assist systems over fully autonomous vehicles.

Japan’s Long-Term AI and Robotics Strategy

Japan aims to deploy 10 million AI-equipped robots across 18 sectors by 2040, backed by $65 billion in public and private investment. The goal is to capture over 30% of the global AI robotics market, valued at $133 billion.

The country’s push for AI sovereignty includes domestic foundation models and infrastructure. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is targeting ¥370 trillion ($2.3 trillion) in AI and semiconductor investment by 2040.

What to watch next: Noetra’s AI factory progress, adoption of Cosmos models in Japanese manufacturing, and Japan’s bid to lead in physical AI.