Japan picks Nvidia for FRONTia national AI build

Japan is backing what is described as the world’s first national AI infrastructure for physical AI, with Nvidia supplying the core hardware for the FRONTia Project.

Under the plan, 13,750 Vera CPUs and 27,500 Rubin GPUs will power an Nvidia Vera Rubin AI factory built for Noetra Corp, a consortium that includes NEC, Sony, Honda, and SoftBank Corp, with support from 44 other companies and organizations. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is supporting the partnership.

Noetra won a tender on June 30, 2026 to run FRONTia through 2030. Japan expects to invest as much as ¥1 trillion — about $6.1 billion — over the project’s five years.

Recommended reading

OVH mass-rebooted hosts to patch Januscape bug

The goal is to provide sovereign AI infrastructure for Japanese industry, with compute for advanced multimodal foundation models aimed at physical AI applications. The project is expected to support areas including robotics in industry and healthcare, as well as AI agents and digital twins.

What the FRONTia Project is meant to do

FRONTia, formally described as the “Development of Multimodal Foundation Models with a View to AI Robotics and Physical AI” project, is intended to combine global technology partnerships with Japan’s manufacturing base and industrial data.

“By fostering collaboration between Japan and leading global innovators — including NVIDIA — and leveraging Japan’s strengths, such as its onsite expertise and manufacturing technology infrastructure, we will build highly reliable multimodal foundation models and contribute to solving global social challenges.”

Once built, the facility will make Noetra’s multimodal foundation models available to domestic model developers and enterprises. Nvidia’s own AI software, models, and libraries will also be offered.

Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s founder and CEO, framed the project as part of a new industrial push.

“Japan invented modern manufacturing. Now, it is building the AI factories that will power the next industrial revolution.”

“NVIDIA is honored to partner with Japan and its industrial leaders to build the AI infrastructure that will power the country’s industries, its economy and a new generation of innovation.”

The project is already drawing criticism. According to the source, concerns include financial transparency from Noetra and the Japanese government, the role of Nvidia as a US partner seen by some as a strategic rival, and the energy demands of large-scale AI infrastructure.

The article also points to a broader issue: physical AI has not scaled as quickly as generative AI, partly because controlling robots, vehicles, and industrial machines in the real world is far harder than predicting text. If FRONTia succeeds, it could accelerate automation in physical work just as Japan commits up to ¥1 trillion to make that possible.