Japan's Largest AI Factory Emerges as NVIDIA Partners with Major Cloud Providers

In a significant step for Japan's AI ecosystem, major cloud providers SoftBank Corp., GMO Internet Group, Highreso, KDDI, Rutilea, and SAKURA Internet have joined forces with NVIDIA to build cutting-edge AI infrastructure aimed at accelerating developments in sectors like robotics, automotive, healthcare, and telecommunications. This collaboration, announced at the NVIDIA AI Summit Japan, underscores Japan's commitment to harnessing AI to revolutionize industry standards and productivity nationwide.

Through support from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), these cloud providers will establish NVIDIA-powered AI data centers across central, northern, and western Japan. These centers are designed to provide critical computational resources to industries, driving AI innovation and fostering the development of advanced applications, from large language models (LLMs) to high-performance computing systems for research and industry use.

Key Collaborations and Infrastructure Upgrades

• SoftBank Corp. has leveraged NVIDIA's Blackwell platforms to build the world's first NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD™ with DGX B200 systems. This infrastructure supports research and development in diverse sectors, including high-performance Japanese-native LLMs by its subsidiary SB Intuitions.

• GMO Internet Group is set to launch the first domestic cloud in Japan featuring full-stack NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPUs. Named GMO GPU Cloud, this platform will support generative AI applications for businesses across Japan, expected to go live this month.

• Highreso has initiated Highreso Kagawa, an AI data center powered by NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPUs, designed to provide high-performance infrastructure for industries including manufacturing and education. An additional data center with 1,600 GPUs will be launched next summer to further boost AI capabilities in Japan.

• KDDI is launching an AI infrastructure equipped with NVIDIA HGX™ systems, supporting generative AI, digital twins, and autonomous vehicle development. The company is also planning a liquid-cooled data center with the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 platform for advanced computing needs.

• Rutilea is scaling its Kyoto-based AI cloud data center to support LLMs in industries like retail, animation, and data extraction. A new Rutilea-operated data center, AI Fukushima, has also commenced in Okuma to aid the regional economy’s recovery through advanced AI platforms.

• SAKURA Internet aims to expand its AI capabilities, nearly doubling its GPU resources to 4,000 NVIDIA Hopper GPUs. The Ishikari data center, expected to run entirely on renewable energy by 2027, will provide high-performance AI computing to entities such as the National Institute of Informatics (NII).

A Step Towards the AI Industrial Revolution

Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, highlighted the transformative potential of AI across industries, noting how Japanese companies can leverage AI to automate and enhance productivity. This initiative aligns with a broader vision of industrial firms operating dual factories, where AI factories produce the software intelligence to fuel traditional manufacturing. With NVIDIA's technology at its core, Japan’s cloud providers are building the AI-driven infrastructure to redefine automotive, robotics, telecommunications, and healthcare industries for an AI-driven era.