Japan’s Sakana AI, backed by NVIDIA, has raised about 30 billion yen (roughly US$214 million) in its Series A funding round, putting its valuation at US$1.5 billion, merely a year post-launch.

Investors include Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., and Nomura Holdings. Prominent participants also include NEC, Itochu, KDDI, and Fujitsu.

Launched in July 2023 by ex-Google researchers, Sakana has attracted widespread attention in Japan, which is actively enhancing its artificial intelligence capabilities.

The company secured processing time on a Japanese supercomputer and partnered with multiple organizations to strengthen the nation’s AI ecosystem.

This comes as NVIDIA has launched initiatives to bolster Japan’s sovereign AI projects.