NVIDIA-backed AI "rising star" Sakana is expected to seek more strategic partners in Japan

According to the financial news app Intelligent Finance, the artificial intelligence startup Sakana AI believes that as international political tensions escalate, it will prompt Japan to develop its own artificial intelligence ecosystem, with the company expected to attract more strategic investors in Japan.

Sakana's co-founder and CEO David Ha stated that the increase in geopolitical risks has raised interest in this Tokyo-based startup. Last week, Sakana announced a financing round of over $100 million led by New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Lux Capital, with participation from NVIDIA. This is also one of NVIDIA's largest investments in the field of artificial intelligence in Japan to date.

Reports from foreign media indicate that Sakana AI raised approximately 20 billion yen (about $137 million) in Series A financing. NVIDIA will invest several billion yen (tens of millions of dollars), seemingly the largest contributor, and become a major shareholder of Sakana AI. Following this round of financing, Sakana AI's valuation will exceed $1 billion.

In an article released on September 4th, Sakana AI stated that its goal is to establish "a world-class artificial intelligence laboratory" in Japan to help Japan and its allies address challenges they face, including declining population, decreased competitiveness, and escalating geopolitical tensions.

Ha mentioned that the group will collaborate with NVIDIA to conduct research in Japan and develop artificial intelligence infrastructure, including data centers.

The two companies aim to jointly design and develop new technologies for efficient basic model development, ensuring Japan's competitive advantage in artificial intelligence development using NVIDIA's latest technologies, and fostering Japan's artificial intelligence community through activities, hackathons, and university outreach.

NVIDIA's founder and CEO Jensen Huang stated in a post, "Countries are embracing sovereign artificial intelligence, capturing and compiling their data, culture, and language through their unique large language models." "Sakana AI's team is automating and accelerating scientific discovery through cutting-edge basic models and NVIDIA's accelerated computing platform, helping drive the democratization of artificial intelligence in Japan."

On Monday, Ha mentioned in an interview, "We believe that strong economies like Japan will want to advance their own artificial intelligence ecosystem, and we hope to be a part of it." However, he also added that the recent round of financing has provided the company with "enough ammunition" to develop its technology.

Sakana focuses on small models that require a large amount of collaboration, rather than a large basic model, which has sparked great interest in resource-poor Japan. This island nation, which is almost entirely dependent on energy imports, has been exploring more energy-efficient ways to catch up in the field of artificial intelligence.

Japan has warmly welcomed this joint venture with only about 20 employees. The company's co-founders include Ha, who helped establish the Google Brain research team in Tokyo, and Llion Jones, one of the key authors of the current artificial intelligence wave