NVIDIA, SoftBank Launch Japan's Largest AI Supercomputer Project

Tokyo, Japan - NVIDIA and SoftBank announced a partnership to build Japan's largest AI supercomputer using NVIDIA's Blackwell platform.

"With your support, we are creating the largest AI data center here in Japan," SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said at NVIDIA's AI Summit Japan in Tokyo.

The project will deliver computing power for sovereign AI initiatives, including large language models designed specifically for Japan.

"We should provide this platform to many of those researchers, the students, and the startups so that we can encourage them to have better access [to] much more computing," Son said.

SoftBank has completed a pilot of the world's first combined AI and 5G network, called AI-RAN, which allows AI and 5G workloads to run simultaneously.

"Now, with this intelligence network that we densely connect each other, [it will] become one big neural brain for the infrastructure intelligence of Japan," Son said. "That will be amazing."

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang highlighted Japan's position in robotics development. "I can't imagine a better country to lead the robotics AI revolution than Japan," Huang said. "You have created some of the world's best robots. These are the robots we grew up with, the robots we've loved our whole lives."

The initiative includes developing a national AI infrastructure network through partnerships with GMO Internet Group and SAKURA Internet, supported by the Japan Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

"Every industry, every company, every country must produce a new industrial revolution," Huang said, identifying AI as the catalyst for this transformation.

Huang noted that AI agents can handle complex tasks, effectively doing "50% of the work for 100% of the people."

"I hope that Japan will take advantage of the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and combine that with your world-class expertise in mechatronics," Huang said. "No country in the world has greater skills in mechatronics than Japan, and this is an extraordinary opportunity to seize."