Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will provide 1 trillion yen to the Noetra consortium. This investment represents approximately $6.2 billion in funding. The government will distribute these funds over a five-year period.
The initiative aims to develop a domestic artificial intelligence foundation model to reduce reliance on U.S. and Chinese technology. SoftBank, NEC, Sony Group, and Honda Motor lead the new consortium. The project focuses on physical AI to enable autonomous operations for robots and machinery.
This strategy leverages Japan’s established strengths in the manufacturing and robotics sectors. The group plans to develop an advanced AI model featuring 1 trillion parameters. The consortium aims to complete this development by fiscal 2028. Japanese companies will receive access to the resulting technology.