Nvidia Corp. has joined $100 million or more in Tokyo company Sakana AI, one of its largest investments in Japan’s AI sector.
Two former Google engineers launched Sakana in 2023, and New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Lux Capital led the Series A financing. The business will collaborate with Nvidia on research, data center access, and “AI community-building” locally.
Sakana, which means “fish” in Japanese, trains low-cost generative AI models on small datasets. This year, its team released many AI models for Japanese speakers, showing how swiftly domestic companies can improve.
The Asian AI market is gaining interest. Microsoft Corp. is investing $2.9 billion over two years to create data centers and cloud computing infrastructure in Japan, and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman opened a Tokyo office.
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Microsoft and SoftBank Corp. are developing generative AI, while OpenAI is working with Rakuten Group Inc.
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Sakana, previously valued at $200 million, differs from OpenAI and others that spend billions training AI on massive datasets. Sakana claims its algorithms can automate language and image processing AI models by simulating natural selection when they mix, test, and discard data, decreasing human input.
“Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said he was drawn in particular to Sakana’s endeavors in Japan to popularize AI. His company, which makes the accelerator chips that drive the global development of generative AI, has since 2023 stepped up its pace of startup investment. Countries are embracing sovereign AI to capture and codify their data, culture and language through their own unique large language models,” Huang said in a statement. “The team at Sakana AI is helping spur the democratization of AI in Japan.”
About Nvidia
NVIDIA pioneered accelerated computing. In 1999, the business invented the GPU, which revolutionized computer graphics, AI, and the metaverse. NVIDIA is a full-stack computing firm with industry-changing data-center technologies.
