Japan Plans to Buy 27,500 Nvidia Rubin Chips for a Sovereign AI Model for Robots
Tokyo will buy 27,500 of Nvidia's next-generation Rubin accelerators to build a homegrown AI foundation model for robots, in a Noetra-led effort that includes SoftBank, Preferred Networks, NEC and Fujitsu.
In Brief
- Japan plans to buy 27,500 Nvidia Rubin chips to build a domestic AI foundation model for robots.
- The effort is led by Noetra with SoftBank, Toyota-backed Preferred Networks, NEC and Fujitsu, backed by ¥387.3 billion ($2.4 billion) in government funding.
- The model is meant to give Japan a “genuine third option” beyond US and Chinese AI systems.
Japan is planning to buy 27,500 next-generation Rubin chips from Nvidia Corp. to build a homegrown foundational AI model for robots, in a sovereign-capacity push that brings together some of the country’s largest technology and industrial groups, according to Bloomberg.
The plan underscores how urgently governments are racing to secure next-generation AI hardware as Nvidia’s Rubin architecture becomes the focal point of frontier compute, and how sovereign AI — models built and controlled domestically — has moved from slogan to procurement.
The initiative makes Japan one of the first major economies to fund a robotics-specific sovereign model rather than a general-purpose assistant, reflecting a bet that embodied AI is where its industrial base can still lead.
What 27,500 Nvidia Rubin chips would buy Japan
Rubin is Nvidia’s next-generation accelerator line, and a block of 27,500 chips represents a substantial compute cluster capable of training large foundation models domestically rather than relying on US or Chinese cloud providers for strategic workloads.
Newly established Noetra Corp. has been allocated ¥387.3 billion ($2.4 billion) from government coffers through March of next year and will oversee the endeavor and build a large-scale data center. Dozens of companies, including SoftBank Corp., Toyota Motor Corp.-backed Preferred Networks Inc. and NEC Corp., are helping to set up and operate Noetra. For Japan, the appeal is strategic: a homegrown model reduces dependence on foreign infrastructure and gives domestic industry — particularly robotics — a tailored base for embodied AI, where the country has long held an edge.
Noetra President Hironobu Tamba, who led the development of SoftBank’s large language model, says the venture is meant to offer an alternative to US and Chinese systems. “Our goal is to create a genuine third option — one that Japan, and others, can choose,” Tamba said in an interview. Noetra was created to bring the fragmented AI efforts of dozens of companies together, he said.
The Noetra-led coalition behind the model
Noetra will draw on engineers from companies including SoftBank, Preferred Networks, NEC and Fujitsu Ltd., all of which have developed their own AI models — SoftBank’s Sarashina LLM, Preferred Networks’ PLaMo and NEC’s cotomi. The venture plans to release an AI model by March next year, followed by regular updates, with a robotics-tailored model targeted within a few years.
The government aims to capture more than 30% of the estimated ¥60 trillion global robotics market by 2040, and for a country with a declining population and severe labor shortages, building native physical-AI models is an imperative rather than a luxury. Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, framed the stakes plainly: “Japan has so many good ideas, but not enough workers. With automation, AI, robotics, the economy can boom again.”
Japan’s order is sizable but small compared with Microsoft Corp.’s plans to eventually build data centers scaling hundreds of thousands of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin chips — a reminder that Tokyo is playing for sovereignty, not sheer scale.
Japan’s planned 27,500-chip Rubin purchase is detailed in a Bloomberg report by Min-Jeong Lee on the country’s sovereign AI ambitions, tied to a Noetra-led coalition with SoftBank, Preferred Networks, NEC and Fujitsu. The original reporting is at Bloomberg.
FAQ
How many Nvidia Rubin chips does Japan plan to buy?
About 27,500, according to Bloomberg, to build a domestic AI foundation model for robots.
Who is involved?
The effort is led by Noetra with SoftBank, Toyota-backed Preferred Networks, NEC and Fujitsu, backed by ¥387.3 billion ($2.4 billion) in government funding.
What is the model for?
A homegrown model for robotics and a “third option” beyond US and Chinese AI systems, with a first release targeted by March next year.
