Japan is expanding its national strategy for physical artificial intelligence (AI) through a government-backed computing infrastructure project and new collaborations with domestic manufacturers and robotics companies. The initiatives, announced during Nvidia's AI conference in Japan, include plans for what organizers described as the world's first national AI infrastructure dedicated to physical AI. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is supporting the FRONTia Project, a national program to develop multimodal foundation models for robotics and physical AI, using an AI factory built by Noetra Corp. as its computing platform. "Japan has launched the FRONTia Project, which will serve as the core of the country's physical AI ecosystem," METI Minister Ryosei Akazawa said. Separately, Japanese manufacturers and technology companies are expanding work on physical AI using Nvidia's Cosmos, Isaac, Metropolis and Jetson platforms. Companies intending to join the Nvidia Cosmos Coalition include Fanuc, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kubota, NEC, SoftBank Corp., Sony Group Corp. and Yaskawa Electric. "The next frontier of AI is in the physical world, and this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Japan," Nvidia founder and Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said.