Japan’s Sakana AI partners Nvidia for research, raises $100M

Tokyo-based Sakana AI, a year-old startup, has partnered with United States chipmaker Nvidia to develop Japan’s artificial intelligence community. The company counts Google researchers among its founders.

In addition to the Nvidia partnership, the startup raised $100 million in a Series A funding round from key investors “led by New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures and Lux Capital, with participation from Nvidia.” The funds will be invested in talent and infrastructure development to advance “nature-inspired, sustainable, and energy-efficient AI technologies.”

The move comes at a time when Japan is looking to boost the local Web3 industry by implementing tax reforms that support the development of startups. Japan’s financial regulator plans a 2025 tax code overhaul, including measures that could reduce crypto asset tax rates.

Nvidia collaboration expected to develop Japan’s AI potential

Sakana AI’s collaboration with Nvidia includes research, data center access, and devising new techniques for efficient foundation model development. 

“The team at Sakana AI is helping spur the democratization of AI in Japan by developing cutting-edge foundation models to automate and speed up scientific discovery with Nvidia’s accelerated computing platform,” Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, said in the statement.

According to the startup, Japan’s current AI talent landscape is technically limited compared with those found in leading cities in China and the US. However, this collaboration with Nvidia is expected to raise the profile of Japan’s AI community and increase activities, including event hosting, hackathons, and university outreach.

Elaborating on its strategy, Sakana AI said:

“We aim to build a world-class AI lab in Japan, to produce technologies that can help Japan and its allies cope with challenges that Japan will face for the rest of the 21st century.”

Sakana AI raised $30 million in January seed funding round

Sakana, derived from the Japanese word for “fish,” focuses on researching and developing new foundation models based on nature-inspired intelligence. 

On Jan. 16, Sakana AI announced that it raised $30 million in a seed funding round led by Lux Capital and with “strong backing” from Khosla Ventures. Other prominent investment firms participating in the seed funding round included 500 Global, Miyako Capital, Basis Set Ventures, JAFCO, July Fund, Geodesic Capital and Learn Capital.

The company said it has a research partnership with NTT and investments from KDDI CVC and Sony Group. 

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