Beyond Automotive Chips: NVIDIA to Supply GPUs and Development Tools to Toyota, Expanding Japanese Corporate Collaboration in 'Physical AI' for Autonomous Machines

U.S. AI chip giant NVIDIA announced today (16) that it will expand its collaboration with Japanese companies in the field of 'physical AI' for autonomous machines. The company will participate in parts of the development program for 'Woven City,' Toyota's technical verification city, providing foundational technologies to promote the application of AI in Japan.

NVIDIA will supply GPUs and development tools to Woven by Toyota, a subsidiary of Toyota engaged in advanced technology research and development. This will help advance the development of AI models required for Woven City's traffic management system.

NVIDIA will also supply semiconductors for next-generation vehicles to Toyota, as well as software foundational technologies needed to develop AI that drives robots in manufacturing environments. Toyota will use these technologies to enhance urban mobility functions, develop next-generation vehicle models, and improve factory efficiency.

On the same day, NVIDIA also announced the expansion of its proprietary AI development foundational technologies. On the software side, it will broaden the provision of its self-developed AI model 'Nemotron' to Japanese companies. This model has already been adopted by NTT DATA, Hitachi, Ltd., and AI startup Sakana AI.

Nemotron is an open-source model, allowing user companies to embed it into their own services.

On the hardware side, NVIDIA will expand its product line of AI semiconductors for robots. Two new products will be introduced under the 'Jetson AGX Thor' series, the AI semiconductor used as the 'brain' of robots. These new models are compact and deliver computing performance close to the flagship model while reducing power consumption.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang began his visit to Japan yesterday (15) and attended an event hosted by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry today. It is expected that he will explain the company's plans to supply semiconductors to 'Noetra,' the policy-driven AI enterprise established by SoftBank and others.