Fujitsu, Fanuc, Yaskawa and Kawasaki Join NVIDIA to Build Japan's Physical AI National Team

Japan largely sat out the software-AI race. For physical AI, it is betting its strongest cards. Fujitsu announced on July 16 a collaboration with Fanuc, Yaskawa Electric and Kawasaki Heavy Industries — two of the world's four industrial-robot giants plus a robotics heavyweight — to develop AI that autonomously controls robots on factory floors, built on NVIDIA technology. Jensen Huang flew to Tokyo and declared the next industrial revolution would be 'Made in Japan.' The logic: language models run on internet text, where Japan has no edge; physical AI runs on real-world motion data, and decades of Japanese manufacturing know-how are exactly that moat. METI simultaneously launched a national physical-AI project, and a jointly funded domestic AI company will build a compute platform with 27,500 next-generation NVIDIA Rubin chips. For investors, beneficiaries span the robot makers, component suppliers (reducers, servos, sensors), and the NVIDIA supply chain including TSMC's advanced nodes. Risks: physical AI remains early-stage, four giants must actually share data and interests, and chip dependence on a single supplier cuts bargaining power. Watch project budgets, deployment timelines, and AI-related orders in Fanuc and Yaskawa earnings.