Jensen Huang spent two days in Tokyo courting Japan's industrial elite, securing deals that span the country's entire tech ecosystem.

The Nvidia chief left with agreements for a $6.2 billion national AI factory, partnerships with leading robotics companies, and supply deals with chip-material providers. His message was clear: AI's next chapter belongs to factory floors and machines.

Japan's sovereign AI gambit

Tokyo doesn't want to run its factories on American or Chinese AI. The government assembled 44 domestic firms, led by SoftBank, Sony, NEC, and Honda, to build homegrown "physical AI" foundation models.

The initiative, called Noetra, will receive up to 1 trillion yen ($6.2 billion) over five years. Nvidia is building a massive data center with 13,750 Vera CPUs and 27,500 Rubin GPUs, delivering 140 megawatts when it launches in 2028.

Noetra's roadmap runs in three phases: Japanese-language reasoning models starting fiscal 2026, omni-modal capabilities by 2028, and "Real-world Native AI" for robots by 2030.

Industrial robotics coalition

Japan's manufacturing giants are lining up behind Nvidia's Cosmos platform. Fanuc, Yaskawa, Kawasaki Heavy, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Sony, and SoftBank committed to building on Nvidia's open robotics models.

The partnerships target Japan's factory automation market, where these companies already dominate industrial robotics globally. Cosmos provides the AI foundation for robots to understand and navigate physical environments.

Supply chain integration

Huang also secured agreements with Japan's chip-material suppliers, ensuring access to components for Nvidia's next-generation processors. These deals strengthen Nvidia's position in the AI hardware supply chain.

The visit follows similar trips to Taiwan and South Korea, part of Huang's broader Asian strategy. Thirty years after a $5 million Sega investment helped save a near-bankrupt Nvidia, Japan and the chip giant need each other again.

The Vera Rubin AI factory represents Japan's largest AI infrastructure investment, positioning the country to compete with U.S. and Chinese AI capabilities in manufacturing and robotics.