Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, President & Director, NVIDIA
FULL EVENT: Nvidia's Jensen Huang Joins Sony, Honda, and SoftBank CEOs at AI Strategy Event | AI1B
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote speech at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) event focused on artificial intelligence policy. The address comes as governments and technology leaders work to shape the future of AI innovation, regulation, and global competitiveness. Huang's remarks are expected to highlight AI's growing impact on industry, infrastructure, and economic growth. For more details, watch our story and subscribe to our channel, DRM News.
Nvidia's Jensen Huang Joins Sony, Honda and SoftBank CEOs at AI Strategy Event
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Joins Sony,...
About Jensen Huang
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, has been active in promoting the expansion of AI infrastructure, particularly in Japan and the United States. In Tokyo, he announced a partnership with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Noetra Corp. to build what he described as Japan's first national AI infrastructure for "physical AI," stating that "Japan cannot outsource its national intelligence." He later returned to Japan to participate in a government-led AI strategy event alongside executives from Sony, Honda, and SoftBank, and also reunited with former SEGA president Shoichiro Irimajiri, crediting SEGA's $5 million investment from 30 years ago with saving Nvidia. In the U.S., Huang joined Coherent CEO Jim Anderson in Sherman, Texas, for a groundbreaking ceremony at a manufacturing facility, where he argued that AI is driving a "reindustrialization" of the country and called for the U.S. to become "pro-energy growth" to support AI's energy demands. Huang has also addressed the societal and economic impacts of AI in multiple interviews and public appearances. He stated that AI's impact will be "largely wonderful" but acknowledged the need for "new social norms" and careful regulation, comparing the transition to the advent of automobiles. He rejected claims that AI is reducing jobs, citing data that software code commits have nearly tripled and arguing that AI is increasing demand for software engineers. At Nvidia's annual shareholder meeting, he declared that "useful AI has arrived" and described the data center as an "AI factory of digital assistants." He also announced Nvidia's first foray into PC technology with a partnership with Microsoft, unveiling the RTX Spark superchip, and discussed the role of open agent systems and connectivity in AI infrastructure during appearances with LangChain and Marvell.
Transcript (15 segments)
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Kōichi Takai0:21
Prime Minister Takai here. Congratulations on the kickoff of the Frontier Project. This event is to advance the social implementation of physical AI, which Japan has potential in. The core companies—Noetra, Honda, NEC, SoftBank, Sony—and the investors of Noetra, as well as NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, are all gathered here today. Physical AI is indispensable for the advancement of manufacturing, logistics, infrastructure, and other fields where Japan has strengths. The important data accumulated in these fields will be a source of competitiveness. Building on Japan's culture of monozukuri, passion for precision, and pride in quality, it is important to gather Japan's wisdom and connect with global intelligence to create trustworthy AI from Japan. The government has set a growth strategy with 17 priority areas and will accelerate strategic domestic investment based on the public-private investment roadmap. For physical AI, we envision 80 trillion yen in public-private investment by 2040, including robotics. The first step is the Frontier Project, which starts today to build the development foundation for physical AI. Amid the challenge of dependence on overseas for AI development, it is very encouraging that a domestic model development base for physical AI will be built. Let us make the Frontier Project a Japanese flag to create trustworthy physical AI here in Japan and go out to the world. Thank you very much.
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Host2:54
We have presented the greeting from Prime Minister Takai to everyone. Thank you, Prime Minister Takai. Next, we will have a greeting from Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ryōsei Akazawa. Minister Akazawa, please.
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Ryōsei Akazawa3:40
Hello everyone. I am Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ryōsei Akazawa. I feel there is more applause than usual. Thank you for joining us today at the Frontier Project kickoff event, both in person and online. I am very pleased that we can hold this event with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. I myself have come here today in a tie to express my heartfelt welcome and great respect for NVIDIA and CEO Huang. Now, in the era of big data times AI, the key to advancing AI transformation (AX) in various fields is on-site data. I have been saying this for about 10 years: in the era of big data times AI, Japan's winning strategy lies in being a super-aging society and a disaster-prone country. We have more elderly people and disasters than any other country. There is big data there. It may look like a crisis, but that is our winning strategy. We experienced the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, and we have the only decommissioning site in the world. Extremely harsh conditions. We have to make sensors and cameras work in high radiation. That is big data. We accumulate physical AI data. Japan also has the world's best manufacturing sites. These efforts to address labor shortages in elderly healthcare, disaster response, and manufacturing, and the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi, are important to solve social issues by utilizing on-site data and physical AI that works in the world. I believe this will be a major driving force for Japan's economic growth.
And we need to spread this movement to regional areas to realize regional AX. It is important that all regions, companies, and people are involved. And by connecting to a wide data infrastructure, we will build physical AI that can be used in various fields, and support AI transformation at each site. It is extremely important to grow this physical AI ecosystem ahead of the world. In a sense, it is a lifeline. By leveraging Japan's position as a problem-advanced country, we want to take the lead in solving global common challenges such as aging and disaster response, and pursue value. The Frontier Project, which kicks off today, is the core of the physical AI ecosystem. Its name comes from the initials of words meaning a reliable AI infrastructure that naturally understands the real world. By combining Japan's strengths in on-site and manufacturing technology with advanced AI R&D capabilities from domestic and international sources, we will build a highly intelligent, reliable multimodal foundation model that understands the world. A new challenge begins with the consortium of Noetra, AIST, and the gathering of excellent engineers from Japan and the world. I sincerely hope that the engineers in charge of this project can fully demonstrate their abilities. I welcome diverse talents with passion to learn cutting-edge technologies and needs, take on difficult challenges, and open the frontier of a world where humans and AI collaborate. We will implement trustworthy physical AI in society and advance AI transformation across Japan. And we will contribute to solving various global issues. Japan has been said to win in technology but lose in business, but we aim to win in both technology and business. I express my strong determination and conclude my greeting. Thank you very much.
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Host8:12
Thank you, Minister Akazawa. We will now take time for stage change. Please wait a moment while preparations are made.
Next, we will have a commemorative photo. For the commemorative photo, we have: Dr. Saito Tamotsu, Chairman of NEDO; Dr. Ishimura Kazuhiko, President and COO of AIST; CEO of Sony Group Corporation; Mr. Miyagawa Junichi, President and CEO of SoftBank Corp.; Mr. Morita Takayuki, President and CEO of NEC Corporation; President of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.; Mr. Nami Hiroshi, President of Noe Corporation; and Mr. Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA. And we have Minister Akazawa and the above participants joining us.
We will now have a photo session. Press and photographers, please take photos from the designated positions. Today's photography will proceed in the following order: first, the central record camera, then still photography by each media, followed by video photography for public relations. Time is limited, so we ask for your cooperation. First, we will take the record camera photo. Please look at the camera in the front center. Please look directly in front of you. Thank you. Next, please look to the left from the perspective of the speakers. Next, please look to the right from the perspective of the speakers. Please look at the camera on your right. Thank you.
Thank you. Media, still photography is complete. Next, we will have video photography. Please look at the video camera at the front of the venue. Is it okay? Is the left side okay? Yes, is it okay? Yes, thank you. Media, video photography is complete. With that, we conclude the photo session. Thank you to all participants.
We will now change the stage. Please wait a moment until preparations are complete.
Now, we will receive a message from Mr. Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of NVIDIA, who is a strong partner for this project. Please welcome him.
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Jensen Huang18:18
Hello. Minister Akazawa, so nice to meet you. I'm so happy two of us have similar sense of style. [Laughter] Distinguished ministers and leaders from NVIDIA, industry, academia, and Japan startup community, thank you. It is great to be here with you. Great honor for me. Today, Japan must build Japan AI. Japan's industrial expertise is its national intelligence, your national treasure. For more than a century, Japan has set the standard of excellence in modern manufacturing. Made in Japan means the highest quality, the highest precision. Takumi, craftsmanship, is a way of life. That knowledge is in shipyards, factories, roads, hospitals, networks, and the people who operate them. That knowledge can be lost. Japan cannot outsource national intelligence. Japan AI, the technology that makes this possible, has finally arrived. It is called physical AI. After 15 years of work, physical AI is here. The foundation of the next industrial revolution, and should be made in Japan.
To the journey to build Japan AI, a new kind of AI factory. Today we are honored to partner with NVIDIA to build the world's first national AI infrastructure for physical AI. This is not the first time Japan has been first. In Nagasaki, from NVIDIA GeForce GPUs with household fans for quantum chemistry, at Titech built Subame, the first GPU supercomputer. The world's first GPU supercomputer. Japan saw that NVIDIA could use GPUs as a new kind of computer before anyone else. NVIDIA is honored to provide the computing systems for Japan's first national AI infrastructure.
We will also provide the full stack AI platform that makes this possible. Nemotron, the open frontier language models for agents; Cosmos, the world foundation model that is the backbone of physical AI; Omniverse and Isaac, the virtual worlds where robots learn before entering real enterprises. General purpose open foundation models, taking it into Japan's factories, roads, hospitals, networks, and homes. With NVIDIA, we will scale Japan's AI infrastructure to support every company, startup, university. My personal hope is that Japan AI will serve all of Japan, from great industrial companies to monozukuri factories and family workshops that carry generations of skills. AI will let a small manufacturer teach a robot new process and pass a master's craft to the next generation. Japan's industrial expertise is its national intelligence, your national treasure. To Japan, industry made right here in Japan. Everyone, and all partners, congratulations to Japan AI. Thank you. Thank you very much.
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Host23:44
As for Mr. Matsuo, next, we will have a message from Professor Yutaka Matsuo, Chair of the AI Strategy Expert Panel, University of Tokyo, regarding this project.
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Yutaka Matsuo24:03
Yes.