University of Tsukuba and University of Washington Forge AI Partnership with NVIDIA and Amazon

On the occasion of the Japan-US Summit, University of Tsukuba and University of Washington have entered into a landmark partnership in collaboration with and funded by NVIDIA and Amazon. This Japan-US partnership is aimed at fostering research, human resource development, entrepreneurship, and social implementation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The agreement was announced on April 9th in Washington D.C., where representatives from both universities and collaborating U.S. corporations participated in a signing ceremony.

The signing ceremony for this partnership took place at the U.S. Department of Commerce, coinciding with Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio's visit to the United States. High-ranking officials from both countries were present, including Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MORIYAMA Masahito from Japan, Ambassador of Japan to the U.S., YAMADA Shigeo, and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina RAIMONDO. The ceremony was held on April 9th at 3 PM local time (April 10th, 4 AM Japan time).

University of Tsukuba President NAGATA Kyosuke, University of Washington Provost Tricia SERIO, NVIDIA Vice President Ned FINKLE, and Amazon Senior Vice President David ZAPOLSKY joined the signing.

President NAGATA issued a statement:

"AI technology is a crucial pillar supporting our future society, and advancing its research and human resource development in this area is a significant challenge. While Japan and the U.S. have been collaborating on research in the field of semiconductors, research utilizing semiconductor-based resources is becoming increasingly important. From this perspective, we believe this AI partnership will also play a crucial role in leading Japan-U.S. cooperation. Under the slogan 'Beyond the Borders,' University of Tsukuba has been promoting fundamental and applied research on AI through an interdisciplinary research network. We are deeply honored to sign this Letter of Intent (LOI) to strengthen our global partnership in this field. We hope that our collaborative efforts within this partnership will contribute significantly to solving the many global challenges facing the world today."

Professor SAKURAI Tetsuya, Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence Research (C-AIR) and a member of the Institute of Systems and Information Engineering of University of Tsukuba, also commented:

"C-AIR has been promoting fundamental research as a hub for advanced AI research, while also pursuing applied research in various fields such as medicine, healthcare, sports, manufacturing, and smart cities. AI will be crucial in supporting all sectors of society, including daily life and industry. We expect that collaboration between University of Tsukuba, located in Tsukuba Science City with its numerous national research institutions, and the University of Washington, located in Seattle with its concentration of high-tech companies, and the participating companies will further promote international AI research between Japan and the U.S. and lead to the creation of societal values. Through this partnership, we will promote advanced AI research leading to social implementation and the development of world-leading global AI talent."

This partnership is expected to be included in the joint statement to be announced at the Japan-U.S. summit on April 10th. It is part of a new framework for collaboration between universities and companies with a total private sector investment of US$ 110 million. Notably, Amazon and NVIDIA are expected to contribute US$ 25 million each to this initiative. The partnership is a result of the strong cooperative relationship that University of Tsukuba and University of Washington have built over several years.

We express our sincere gratitude to Amazon and NVIDIA, who have pledged their support for this agreement, as well as to Ambassador Emanuel for his dedicated efforts.