How NVIDIA is empowering a wave of Japanese AI startups

Japan’s burgeoning AI startup ecosystem is experiencing rapid growth, powered by NVIDIA’s technology and supported by a rich network of academic institutions, industrial partners, and government initiatives.

Key developments in Tokyo’s AI landscape: The NVIDIA AI Summit Japan showcased the region’s transformation into a global innovation hub, featuring a notable fireside chat between NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son.

• The NVIDIA Inception program now includes over 370 AI-driven startups in Japan
• A robust developer community of 250,000 professionals supports the ecosystem
• Tokyo’s 14 million technology-savvy residents contribute to the city’s emergence as a leading AI center

Digital innovation in entertainment: Japanese startups are reimagining the country’s renowned creative industries through AI-powered solutions.

• AiHUB’s digital celebrity Sali demonstrates advanced human-like interactions using NVIDIA Avatar Cloud Engine
• The implementation of ACE technology has reduced development costs by approximately 50% while enhancing avatar expressiveness
• Japan’s traditional strengths in anime and manga are evolving into new forms of AI-driven entertainment

Software development transformation: Japanese companies are rapidly adopting NVIDIA’s development tools to accelerate AI innovation.

• Kotoba Technologies leverages NVIDIA NeMo for real-time speech recognition and translation
• APTO utilizes NeMo Curator to enhance data annotation quality for major clients like RIKEN and Ricoh
• These implementations have resulted in improved model accuracy and reduced training times

Cross-sector collaboration: Security and automation solutions are addressing Japan’s demographic challenges.

• Companies like ugo and Asilla are developing autonomous security systems using NVIDIA DeepStream and Triton Inference Server SDKs
• These solutions extend beyond security into healthcare and retail applications
• The NVIDIA Jetson platform powers real-time threat detection and response systems

Ecosystem support structures: Key institutions are facilitating startup growth and innovation.

• UTokyo IPC’s 1stRound accelerator program connects academia with industry
• The Osaka Innovation Hub expands the ecosystem beyond Tokyo
• Collaborative spaces and networking events help startups move from prototype to commercial products

Future trajectory: The convergence of NVIDIA’s technological infrastructure with Japan’s industrial strength and academic excellence positions the country for continued AI leadership, particularly in addressing unique socioeconomic challenges like an aging population and labor shortages.