Nvidia is expanding beyond cloud-focused growth and deeper into “physical AI,” a market tied to real-world industrial and robotics uses, through a new partnership in Japan. The move follows CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to Japan and centers on the country’s national AI infrastructure push.
Under the plan, Nvidia will work with Noetra, the AI company leading Japan’s national project, alongside 44 participating companies and institutions including Sony, SoftBank, NEC and Honda. The project will build a Vera Rubin AI factory using 13,750 Vera CPUs and 27,500 Rubin GPUs, with the goal of delivering 140 megawatts of data-center capacity.
The facility is expected to support multimodal AI models for Japanese manufacturing and robotics. Construction is slated to begin in April 2027, with operations targeted for June 2028.
Nvidia is also pursuing partnerships with major Japanese industrial automation and robotics companies including FANUC, Yaskawa Electric, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Fujitsu. The company said it is supplying a full physical AI stack, including Cosmos, Isaac, Metropolis, Jetson and networking, rather than selling chips alone. Nvidia has said revenue from its sovereign AI, industrial and enterprise business reached about $37 billion in its most recent quarter, up 31% from the previous quarter.
