TOKYO – Three Japanese companies, including Fujitsu Ltd., are considering investing in a new firm led by SoftBank Corp. to develop an artificial intelligence model domestically, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
The companies, also including Asahi Kasei Corp. and Yaskawa Electric Corp., are expected to invest several tens of millions of yen each in Japan AI Foundation Model Development and cooperate broadly to create physical AI, which merges AI with robotics, for use in manufacturing.
The new company, in which SoftBank, NEC Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Sony Group Corp. are the major shareholders, also involves other minor investors, including MUFG Bank and Nippon Steel Corp. It is seeking investment from about 30 more companies, the sources said.
The new firm has applied for funding from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, hoping to accelerate development with financial support from the Japanese government.
The move comes as U.S. and Chinese rivals outpace other countries in developing an AI model.
The planned new physical AI is aimed at enabling manufacturing robots to act autonomously, helping improve productivity and address labor shortages in Japan. It will be trained on the abundant data accumulated at Japan’s manufacturing sites in areas such as inspection and processing.
