Partnerships between Japanese companies and foreign-capital firms are accelerating in physical AI, the arena for systems that perceive and act in the real world. NVIDIA is expanding collaboration with domestic companies around Cosmos, Isaac and Metropolis, while plans to deploy Rubin GPUs and the government's robotics strategy are moving forward.
NVIDIA announced expanded collaboration with Japanese robotics and manufacturing companies, promoting a domestic ecosystem built around Cosmos, Isaac and Metropolis. FANUC, Yaskawa Electric and Omron were among the participating companies.
A large-scale domestic AI infrastructure deployment and construction plan featuring 27,500 Rubin GPUs is under way, with AI infrastructure of up to approximately 140 MW envisaged.
On the government side, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced the development of foundation models with a view to AI robotics. Its revised AI Robotics Strategy sets a target of approximately 10 million robots deployed in Japan by 2040, identifies 18 priority deployment fields and estimates the market size at approximately ¥60 trillion.
Approximately 542,000 new industrial robots were installed worldwide in 2024, while Japan accounted for 44,500 units, down 4% year on year.