Japan’s government has finalized plans to introduce Nvidia’s latest AI semiconductor, “Rubin,” on a massive scale as part of a next-generation infrastructure project championed as “domestic AI.” The Nikkei reported on the 19th that the project, supported by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and developed by a corporate consortium including SoftBank (9984.T), will purchase approximately 27,500 Rubin GPUs using state funds. The budget required is expected to reach hundreds of billions of yen — equivalent to several trillion Korean won (~billions of USD).
This large-scale order gained rapid momentum around CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to Japan. Huang stayed in Japan from the 15th to the 16th, holding a public meeting with the METI minister as well as a series of meetings with top executives from major manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies including Toyota (7203.T), Canon (7751.T), and Astellas Pharma (4503.T), along with around 40 other firms such as Hitachi (6501.T) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T). Nvidia touted the visit extensively on its official blog, calling it “a journey to bring AI and robotics to every industry” and promoting expanded collaboration across Japan’s industrial landscape.
The key outcome was the announcement of a partnership with Noetra, a government-led AI company. Jointly funded by SoftBank, NEC (6701.T), Sony (6758.T), Honda (7267.T), and others, the company agreed to build an “AI Factory” equipped with 27,500 GPUs alongside Nvidia. This is regarded as the first national-level AI infrastructure targeting the global robotics industry. Nvidia stated that this infrastructure will support large-scale AI computation in manufacturing and robotics — fields where Japan holds strong competitive advantages.
A flurry of collaboration announcements from major Japanese corporations also marked the visit. Hitachi revealed it would begin proof-of-concept testing for an “autonomous factory” that minimizes human intervention using Nvidia’s AI technology. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries agreed to co-develop a next-generation data center cooling system applying Nvidia’s technology. Additionally, Huang held a private luncheon with key players from Japan’s semiconductor materials and equipment industry. Attendees included the heads of Kioxia, Tokyo Electron (8035.T), Shin-Etsu Chemical (4063.T), Sumitomo Electric (5802.T), Taiyo Yuden (6976.T), and materials company Ajinomoto (2802.T).
However, behind the “enthusiastic welcome” from Japanese industry lies a more complex sentiment. The Nikkei reported that an anonymous Japanese corporate executive offered a self-deprecating response: “They talk about alliances and collaboration, but in the end, it’s just about buying Nvidia semiconductors.” While Japan touts “domestic AI,” the reality is that the country will only handle data storage and model design, while the computational engine — the very foundation of AI — remains entirely dependent on Nvidia.
This dependency issue is not unique to Japan. The Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford recently diagnosed in a report that only the United States and China possess “computing sovereignty” — the ability to build advanced AI data centers using only domestic technology. While more than 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, India, and the United Arab Emirates, are pouring national budgets into Nvidia’s AI infrastructure, this inherently carries the structural risk that their entire national AI foundation could grind to a halt with any shift in U.S. government export control policy.
Meanwhile, Huang’s signature “on-the-ground salesmanship” and approachable demeanor also drew attention during the visit. He visited a facility in Tokyo’s Akihabara district converted from an old Sega game center, expressing gratitude for the $5 million (~750 million won) rescue investment Sega had once provided to Nvidia. He also dined with Japanese business leaders at Yakiton Sankichi, a casual izakaya, sharing a meal of offal hot pot and giant french fries, and personally handed out traditional Japanese red bean yokan sweets to fans waiting outside the restaurant — cementing his image as the “approachable guy in the leather jacket.”
The Nikkei offered a sober assessment, noting that while Huang lavishly praised Japan’s industrial field knowledge as a “national treasure” during this visit, this is the same sales pitch he has repeatedly used in Taiwan and South Korea. The point was made that while Japanese industry swooned over the visit of the “star of the AI era,” the true results of these collaborations and alliances have yet to be proven.