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Toyota Motor Corporation (“Toyota”) and Waymo reached a preliminary agreement to explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies. Woven by Toyota will also join the potential collaboration as Toyota’s strategic enabler, contributing its strengths in advanced software and mobility innovation. This potential partnership is built on a shared vision of improving road safety and delivering increased mobility for all. Toyota and Waymo aim to combine their respective strengths to develop a new autonomous vehicle platform. In parallel, the companies will explore how to leverage Waymo's autonomous technology and Toyota's vehicle expertise to enhance next-generation personally owned vehicles (POVs). The scope of the collaboration will continue to evolve through ongoing discussions. Toyota has long advanced research and development in support of a zero-traffic-accident vision, guided by a three-pillar approach...

New capabilities supercharge proactive risk management, threat modeling, attack path prediction, and actionable insights DALLAS , Feb. 25, 2025 -- Trend Micro Incorporated (TSE: 4704) has launched a breakthrough AI Agent designed to change the way enterprises approach cyber risk. Today's announcement introduces Trend Cybertron, the industry's first specialized cybersecurity large language model (LLM) designed to drive proactive security outcomes. Using the most precise local risk assessments and deepest global threat intelligence in the industry, the new AI engine predicts and prevents threats across an organization's entire attack surface in any environment. Trend Cybertron combines the reasoning capabilities of Agentic AI with 35 years of data, threat intel, and human expertise to build a vastly capable cybersecurity agent.  Eva Chen , CEO: "Trend is building a cybersecurity AI agent unlike any other. We're bringing together a massive quanti...

[Yokohama, Japan and Milpitas, Calif., February 26, 2025] -- Socionext, a leading global company developing system-on-chip (SoC) for data centers, AI, and automotive sectors, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Google Quantum AI. Together, the two companies will develop controller SoCs for Google Quantum AI’s next-generation quantum computing system. Socionext has a long history in semiconductor technology and development. In this new partnership focused on quantum computing system controllers, Socionext will utilize its expertise to deliver high-precision, high-quality semiconductor products that will contribute to Google Quantum AI’s quantum computing system and drive technological innovation.  

- Rakuten’s fine-tuned Mixture of Experts LLM and first SLM aim to accelerate Japan’s AI development with best-in-class scores Tokyo – Rakuten Group, Inc. has announced the release of both Rakuten AI 2.0, the company’s first Japanese large language model (LLM) based on a Mixture of Experts (MoE) *1  architecture, and Rakuten AI 2.0 mini, the company’s first small language model (SLM). Both models were unveiled in December 2024, and after further fine-tuning, Rakuten has released Rakuten AI 2.0 foundation *2 and instruct models *3 along with Rakuten AI 2.0 mini foundation and instruct models to empower companies and professionals developing AI applications.  Rakuten AI 2.0 is an 8x7B MoE model based on the Rakuten AI 7B model released in March 2024. This MoE model is comprised of eight 7 billion parameter models, each as a separate expert. Each individual token is sent to the two most relevant experts, as decided by the router. The experts and router a...

OpenAI and the SoftBank Group has announced a partnership to develop and market Advanced Enterprise AI called “Cristal intelligence.” Cristal intelligence will securely integrate the systems and data of individual enterprises in a way that is customized specifically for each company. SoftBank Group Corp. will spend $3 billion US annually to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across its group companies, making it the first company in the world to integrate Cristal intelligence at scale, as well as deploying existing tools like ChatGPT Enterprise to employees across the entire group. Furthermore, to accelerate the deployment of Cristal intelligence customized for Japan-based companies, OpenAI and the SoftBank Group agreed to establish a joint venture (JV) company called "SB OpenAI Japan." This JV will market Cristal intelligence exclusively to major companies in Japan.  Details of This Partnership A Vision to Transform Industry with Cristal intelligence In 2024, OpenAI la...

  Please note Q3 net income loss due to USD liabilities and the weak yen; year to date Q1 to Q3 cumulative net income is overall positive.    

Tokyo Electron (TEL; Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Toshiki Kawai) announced it will expand Tokyo Electron Miyagi, a manufacturing subsidiary, by constructing a new production building at the Miyagi plant (Miyagi Prefecture, Japan) to meet the rapidly growing demand for semiconductors in recent years. As the use of digital technologies becomes more widespread and semiconductor technology innovation continues to advance, the semiconductor market is expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2030, driving further growth in the semiconductor equipment market. Tokyo Electron Miyagi’s dry etch systems business is also expected to grow significantly as its share of the expanding market increases. The new production building will adopt the Smart Production concept, which embodies the next-generation approach to manufacturing. By automating logistics functions and mechanizing manufacturing processes, the new facility will provide production lines with high capacity, quality,...

   

Tokyo – NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) has utilized its video analysis and generative AI to develop a technology that provides advice for improving worker performance by identifying differences between model actions and actual movements. This newly developed technology enables the automatic display of appropriate advice for improving everything from precision tasks using one’s hands and fingers to tasks requiring the use of the entire body. Using this technology, workers can master tasks without supervision at worksites in manufacturing, logistics, construction, and various other industries. In recent years, the shortage of mentors arising from the aging of skilled workers has made passing down skills a challenge. Moreover, there is growing concern regarding the decline of work quality as a result of the increasing cost of supervised training and the inability to provide workers with sufficient training due to the rise of high-mix low-volume production and the diversit...

SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”) announced it developed a traffic understanding multimodal AI* designed for remote support of autonomous driving, designed to operate on low-latency edge AI servers with the goal of achieving fully unmanned operations. The traffic understanding multimodal AI aims to address key challenges in the social implementation of autonomous driving by enhancing vehicle safety and reducing operational costs through external support. By running the multimodal AI in real time on SoftBank's MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) and other edge AI servers with low latency and high security, the system enables real-time understanding of autonomous vehicle status, providing reliable remote support for autonomous driving. In October 2024, SoftBank launched a field trial of this remote support solution for autonomous driving using the traffic understanding multimodal AI at the Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus (location: Fujisawa, Kanagawa, “SFC”). This experiment aims to v...