Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang traveled to Tokyo to publicly refute manufacturing delays on the company's next-generation Vera Rubin AI accelerator system, emphasizing that production is already underway and large-scale manufacturing is imminent. The announcement comes as Huang pivots Nvidia's strategy toward Japan's emerging role in physical AI and sovereign AI development, positioning the country as a critical hub for the next phase of artificial intelligence innovation.

Why Is Vera Rubin Facing Skepticism?

Earlier this month, research firm SemiAnalysis reported that Nvidia's next-generation AI server rack system had been delayed due to manufacturing difficulties with a specialized circuit board responsible for connecting electronic modules. The report sparked concern among investors and industry observers about potential supply chain bottlenecks. However, Huang took the stage at a developer event in Tokyo on July 15 to directly address these concerns.

"Those reports are not true. Vera Rubin is already in production, and large-scale manufacturing is coming soon," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.

Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of Nvidia

Huang did not disclose a specific timeline for mass production but emphasized that the hardware is moving toward "very large-scale" production. This marks the second time in as many weeks that Huang has publicly clarified concerns about product delays. Last week, during a Morgan Stanley non-deal roadshow in California, he similarly refuted claims that the Rubin Ultra would be delayed, noting that minor adjustments at the rack-level design were purely system architecture optimization, not schedule changes.

How Is Japan Becoming Central to Nvidia's AI Strategy?

Huang's Tokyo visit signals a strategic shift in Nvidia's focus toward Japan as a sovereign AI powerhouse. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is actively promoting the development of the country's domestic AI industry, encouraging private sector investment in "Made in Japan" AI to support factory automation and robotics technology. As Japan's population shrinks, the nation's manufacturing sector faces severe labor shortages and is increasingly reliant on robots and artificial intelligence to maintain productivity.

Huang identified several competitive advantages Japan possesses in the AI era. He noted that Japan's robotics technology, semiconductor materials, advanced packaging systems, and manufacturing equipment are mostly world-leading. The country is home to globally recognized industrial robot manufacturers including Fanuc, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, as well as Toyota Motor, which extensively adopts automation equipment. SoftBank Group has also announced a $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB's robotics business to enhance AI-driven automation.

"National-level intelligence capabilities must be cultivated, strengthened, and developed domestically. They must be built within the country's borders and cannot be exported or outsourced," explained Jensen Huang.

Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of Nvidia

This statement reflects Nvidia's broader push into "sovereign AI," where countries develop and operate their own AI systems independently. Nvidia is currently involved in national-level AI projects in over 20 countries worldwide, with sovereign AI-related revenue for fiscal year 2026 already exceeding $30 billion, representing more than a threefold increase from the previous year.

Steps to Building Japan's AI Ecosystem

Japanese enterprises and research institutions are actively building industry-specialized AI models tailored to Japan's language, industries, and workforce needs. Here are the key approaches being deployed:

• Open Model Development: The Institute of Science Tokyo developed its Swallow family of open foundation models using Nvidia Nemotron datasets and the Nvidia NeMo software stack, enhancing Japanese language and reasoning performance while preserving core English, math, and coding capabilities for specialized use cases like financial-document translation and asset-management report generation.
• Telecom and Enterprise AI: SB Intuitions Corp., SoftBank Corp.'s generative AI research subsidiary, trained its Sarashina series of homegrown generative AI models using Nvidia Nemotron, with Sarashina3 mini selected by Japan's Digital Agency for specialized AI use cases and SoftBank developing a large telco model for autonomous telecom network operations.
• Robotics and Physical AI: Avatarin, an AI and robotics startup, is using Nvidia Nemotron open models to develop Japanese-language speech and reasoning capabilities for enterprise AI agents, with Nvidia HGX B300 systems providing private AI infrastructure for secure customer conversation analysis and Nvidia Jetson powering edge AI capabilities including digital avatar systems deployed at airports across Japan.
• Materials Research and Energy: ENEOS Holdings is using Nvidia Nemotron open models with the Nvidia AI-Q Blueprint to advance agentic AI workflows for energy and materials research and development, integrating technical document search, vision and language understanding, and simulation-backed molecular screening to accelerate materials exploration.
• Enterprise Workflow Automation: NTT DATA used Nvidia Nemotron-Personas-Japan to augment training data for its proprietary tsuzumi 2 model, improving question-answering accuracy and planning to deploy a scalable multi-agent framework using the Nvidia Agent Toolkit to route tasks to the best models and drive autonomous enterprise workflows.

Hitachi is developing physical AI technologies to address real-world operational challenges by using Nvidia Nemotron and Nvidia Cosmos open models alongside its proprietary IT and operational technology domain knowledge, designing a multi-agent orchestration platform to connect and coordinate IT and OT operations across complex workflows. Sakana AI is integrating Nvidia Nemotron into its Fugu model-routing platform, expanding the range of AI models Fugu can intelligently orchestrate to dynamically select the best model for each task in agentic AI workflows.

What Role Does Japan's Semiconductor Industry Play?

Huang expressed high expectations for Rapidus, Japan's government-backed semiconductor company aimed at mass-producing advanced chips. He noted that Japan's semiconductor technology and manufacturing base, chemical materials, advanced packaging systems, and manufacturing equipment provide a strong foundation for Rapidus's future development. This support reflects Nvidia's broader strategy to diversify its supply chain and strengthen partnerships with countries building sovereign AI capabilities.

On the Chinese market, Huang reiterated that Nvidia is ready to deliver H200 chips to Chinese customers as soon as approvals are granted. Officials from the Trump administration have confirmed that a small number of H200 chips have been shipped to Chinese customers after receiving consent from Washington. However, Huang acknowledged that large-scale shipments have not yet begun.

How Does Nvidia's 30-Year Partnership With SEGA Reflect Its Strategy?

During his Tokyo visit, Huang made a special appearance at an event commemorating 30 years of partnership between Nvidia and SEGA in Akihabara, the historic arcade gaming district. The two companies announced a collaboration bringing SEGA titles, including "Virtua Fighter Crossroads," to the Nvidia RTX Spark, a new chip designed for slim Windows laptops and compact desktop PCs.

The partnership dates back three decades, with the companies co-developing next-generation graphics technology for arcade systems and gaming consoles. Nvidia's NV1 chip served as the foundation for the PC version of "Virtua Fighter," one of the world's first 3D fighting games. SEGA plans to expand RTX Spark support to showcase its flagship franchises in new ways, leveraging ray tracing, DLSS, and AI technology.

Huang emotionally acknowledged SEGA's critical role in Nvidia's survival. In the mid-1990s, Nvidia faced a severe corporate crisis. At that time, former SEGA President Shoichiro Irimajiri agreed to terminate the contract between the two companies and secured $5 million in funding for Nvidia, allowing the company to survive the crisis and eventually achieve its current dominance in AI chips. Huang remarked that without Japan and SEGA, there would be no Nvidia today, emphasizing Japan as a long-standing close friend.

The Tokyo visit underscores Nvidia's commitment to positioning Japan as a critical partner in the next wave of AI innovation, from sovereign AI infrastructure to specialized robotics and semiconductor development. As countries worldwide seek to build independent AI capabilities, Japan's combination of robotics expertise, semiconductor manufacturing prowess, and government support positions it as a model for how nations can participate in the AI revolution while maintaining technological sovereignty.