From left: Fumio Kishida, Brad Smith, Suzanne P Clark, Rahm Emanuel and Miki Tsusaka. Image: Microsoft
As part of the investment, the company will also open its first Microsoft Research Asia lab in the country in Tokyo amid plans to digitally upskill around 3m people in AI.
Microsoft will pump nearly $2.9bn into Japan over the next two years to increase its AI and cloud infrastructure and invest in the digital skills of its population.
In an announcement yesterday (9 April), Microsoft – currently the world’s most valuable company by market cap – said it intends to “hyperscale” its AI and cloud infrastructure in Japan and provide AI skills training to more than 3m people over the next three years.
As part of the investment, the company will also open its first Microsoft Research Asia lab in Japan and deepen its cybersecurity collaboration with the Japanese government.
“These investments aim to support Japan’s key pillar to tackle deflation and stimulate the economy by expanding the infrastructure, skilled talent and security required to accelerate Japan’s digital transformation and adoption of AI,” the company said.
The announcement coincided with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida’s state visit to the US, where he was joined by Microsoft vice-chair and president Brad Smith and Microsoft Japan president Miki Tsusaka.
Smith, who has led Microsoft on a recent spree of AI investments across the world, said that the latest announcement represents the software giant’s most significant investment in Japan since it began operations in the country in 1978.
“As economic activities in the digital space increase, it is important for the Japanese industry as a whole to work with global companies like Microsoft that are equipped with a set of digital infrastructure,” said Kishida.
“We appreciate Microsoft’s announcement of its new investment in Japan. Microsoft has made significant contributions to the social implementation of generative AI in Japan through various initiatives, and we look forward to further collaboration. We also look forward to deepening our cooperation in the field of cybersecurity.”
The investment will also allow Microsoft to provide more advanced computing resources in Japan, including the latest graphics processing units – which are crucial for speeding up AI workloads.
Just this week, Microsoft said it is opening a new AI hub in London, which will be led by former Inflection and DeepMind scientist Jordan Hoffman. This follows the company’s largest-ever investment in the UK with a commitment of £2.5bn over the next three years to expand its AI data centre footprint in the country.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a $2.1bn investment in Spain over the next two years to expand its AI and cloud infrastructure in the country, soon after committing €3.2bn in Germany with the same objective.
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