Japan is said to be pushing a plan to invest 3 trillion yen (about 28 trillion won) through a public-private partnership to develop a homegrown artificial intelligence (AI).
On the 21st, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to launch a new company next spring aimed at developing an AI foundation model with 1 trillion parameters. The judgment is that reliance on overseas is risky because AI is directly tied to industrial competitiveness and national security.
To that end, about 1 trillion yen (about 9.4 trillion won) will be invested over five years starting in fiscal 2026 (Oct. 2025–Sept. 2026), and more than 300 billion yen (about 2.8 trillion won) will be reflected in next year's budget proposal.
In addition, SoftBank is discussing investing 2 trillion yen (about 18.8 trillion won) in data centers to be used for AI development over six years starting in 2026. The company is currently building out data centers at two locations, including Hokkaido and Tomakomai.
The newspaper said, "The new company is expected to have about 100 engineers centered on SoftBank," and added, "The developed foundation model will be opened to Japanese corporations so each can use it according to their needs."
The Japanese government also plans to support the collection of data needed for AI training and, in the future, to promote the development of AI that can be mounted on robots.