Japan’s Startups Drive AI Innovation With NVIDIA Accelerated Computing
Supercharged by AI, Japan has become a global innovation hub, and the NVIDIA Inception program is right in the middle of it.
Lifelike digital humans engage with audiences in real time. Autonomous systems streamline complex logistics. And AI-driven language tools break down communication barriers on the fly.
This isn’t sci-fi. This is Tokyo’s startup scene.
Supercharged by AI — and world-class academic and industrial might — the region has become a global innovation hub. And the NVIDIA Inception program is right in the middle of it.
With over 370 AI-driven startups in the program and a 250,000-person strong NVIDIA developer community, Japan’s AI startup ecosystem is as bold as it is fast-moving.
This week’s NVIDIA AI Summit Japan puts these achievements in the spotlight, capturing the region’s relentless innovation momentum.
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son opened the summit with a fireside chat to discuss AI’s transformative role, with Jensen diving into Japan’s growing AI ecosystem and its push toward sovereign AI.
Sessions followed with leaders from METI (Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), the University of Tokyo and other key players. Their success is no accident.
Tokyo’s academic powerhouses, global technology and industrial giants, and technology-savvy population of 14 million, provide the underpinnings of a global AI hub that stretches from the bustling startup scene in Shibuya to new hotbeds of tech development in Chiyoda and beyond.
Supercharging Japan’s Creative Class
Iconic works from anime to manga have not only redefined entertainment in Japan — they’ve etched themselves into global culture, inspiring fans across continents, languages and generations.
Now, Japan’s vibrant visual pop culture is spilling into AI, finding fresh ways to surprise and connect with audiences.
Take startup AiHUB’s digital celebrity Sali.
Sali isn’t just a character in the traditional sense. She’s a digital being with presence — responsive and lifelike. She blinks, she smiles, she reacts.
Here, AI is doing something quietly revolutionary, slipping under the radar to redefine how people interact with media.
At AI Summit Japan, AiHUB revealed that it will adopt the NVIDIA Avatar Cloud Engine, or ACE, in the lip-sync module of its digital human framework, providing Sali nuanced expressions and human-like emotional depth.
ACE doesn’t just make Sali relatable — it puts her in a league of characters who transcend screens and pages.
This integration reduced development and future management costs by approximately 50% while improving the expressiveness of the avatars, according to AiHUB.
No longer a science fiction anymore. And the rate at it which AI companies are advancing, we're seeing more barriers broken by the end up 2025. Honestly 2025 will be a life changing year for the world
The dream I had with robots serving as House cleaners will come through 🎉. I am surprised that all this is happening so soon I thought we might see this day in decades but here we are