This week’s featured topics include the growing use of AI and sensors to improve production efficiency in indoor farming, reports that South Korea’s SK hynix is considering a memory plant in Japan, and NVIDIA’s plan to build an open AI model.
Amid a shortage of workers in indoor farming, efforts to grow vegetables and fruit indoors using AI and sensor technology are gaining traction. According to a report by Jiji Press, these initiatives are attracting attention as a means of improving productivity. In connection with this trend, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has indicated a policy of turning agriculture into a growth industry and strengthening food security through its fiscal 2027 budget.
Kaneko Seeds, Sakata Seed, Kumiai Chemical Industry and Nihon Nohyaku have been cited as agriculture-related stocks. Investment interest is expected to rise in certain market conditions, and attention is likely to focus on developments in the agri-tech sector.
South Korea’s SK hynix is reportedly considering a plan to invest tens of trillions of won to build a memory semiconductor production fab in Miyagi Prefecture in Japan’s Tohoku region, according to South Korean media reports. While this could become the first instance of the company establishing a local production base in Japan, pressure from the United States over domestic investment is also expected to have an impact.
In the semiconductor sector, multiple people familiar with the matter have revealed that NVIDIA plans to use a recently agreed contract worth approximately $6 billion to build one of the world’s leading open-weight AI models. The model is reportedly intended to compete with imitation models developed by Chinese companies.