Nvidia (NVDA) is making a strategic investment in Tokyo-based Sakana AI and will be partnering with the artificial intelligence research company to advance AI development in Japan. Sakana AI was founded by former Google engineers in 2023. Furthermore, the Japanese AI company revealed that it had secured over $100 million from a group of investors.
The Series A funding round was led by prominent venture capital firms, including New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Lux Capital. Earlier this year, Sakana AI raised $30 million in seed funding, also led by Lux Capital. According to a Nikkei Asia report, Sakana is estimated to have raised a total amount of around 20 billion yen ($137 million), of which Nvidia appears to be the largest contributor.
Nvidia Invests in Sakana AI
As a part of its collaboration with Nvidia, Sakana AI plans to work closely with the chip major on several fronts. This includes AI research, the development of data centers, and building a robust AI community in Japan.
In a statement, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised the partnership, saying, “The team at Sakana AI is helping spur the democratization of AI in Japan by developing cutting-edge foundation models to automate and speed up scientific discovery with NVIDIA’s accelerated computing platform.”
Nvidia Collaborates with Japan
Earlier this year, Nvidia announced that the company will play a central role in shaping Japan’s generative AI infrastructure. In order to develop Japan’s generative AI infrastructure, its government announced plans to invest $740 million (around ¥114.6 billion) to support six local firms in building AI infrastructure.
As a part of this initiative, Nvidia is partnering with several key digital infrastructure providers.
Is Nvidia a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Analysts remain bullish about NVDA stock, with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 39 Buys and four Holds. Over the past year, NVDA has surged by more than 100%, and the average NVDA price target of $151.79 implies an upside potential of 42.9% from current levels.
