OpenAI Bids for Japan Business as It Opens Tokyo Office 

Journalists are silhouetted at OpenAI’s press conference about the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan April 15, 2024. (Reuters)
Journalists are silhouetted at OpenAI’s press conference about the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan April 15, 2024. (Reuters)
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OpenAI Bids for Japan Business as It Opens Tokyo Office 

Journalists are silhouetted at OpenAI’s press conference about the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan April 15, 2024. (Reuters)
Journalists are silhouetted at OpenAI’s press conference about the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan April 15, 2024. (Reuters)

Microsoft backed artificial intelligence startup OpenAI made a pitch for business in Japan on Monday as it opened its first Asia office in Tokyo.

"This is just the first step in what I hope will be a long-term partnership with the people of Japan, government leaders, businesses and research institutions," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a video message.

The startup, which has caused excitement among consumers since the launch of its ChatGPT generative AI chatbot in late 2022, is looking to grow new sources of revenue globally.

Altman and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap have hosted hundreds of Fortune 500 company executives in the United States and Britain this month to pitch for business, Reuters has reported.

Last year Altman said he was considering a Japan location after meeting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The startup has also opened offices in London and Dublin.

Japan hopes to take advantage of AI as it looks to compete with an increasingly assertive China, accelerate the shift to digital services and alleviate deepening labor shortages.

"We have a backlog of demand," Lightcap told reporters in Tokyo, adding that "we expect a meaningful contribution from Japan over time," without providing details.

OpenAI said it has a custom model optimized for the Japanese language and that Tadao Nagasaki, who was president of Amazon Web Services in Japan, is heading the Japan business.

While the country is seen as a laggard in the technology, local companies including telcos SoftBank and NTT are investing in large language models.

OpenAI's customers in Japan include automaker Toyota Motor, manufacturer Daikin Industries and local government.

Microsoft said last week it would invest $2.9 billion over two years in cloud and AI infrastructure in Japan, part of a wave of investment globally by US tech giants.



Meta Becomes the Latest Big Tech Company Turning to Nuclear Power for AI Needs

The Meta logo marks the entrance of their corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022. (AFP)
The Meta logo marks the entrance of their corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022. (AFP)
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Meta Becomes the Latest Big Tech Company Turning to Nuclear Power for AI Needs

The Meta logo marks the entrance of their corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022. (AFP)
The Meta logo marks the entrance of their corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California on November 9, 2022. (AFP)

Meta has cut a 20-year deal to secure nuclear power to help meet surging demand for artificial intelligence and other computing needs at Facebook’s parent company.

The investment with Meta will also expand the output of a Constellation Energy Illinois nuclear plant.

The agreement announced Tuesday is just the latest in a string of tech-nuclear partnerships as the use of AI expands. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Constellation's Clinton Clean Energy Center was actually slated to close in 2017 after years of financial losses but was saved by legislation in Illinois establishing a zero-emission credit program to support the plant into 2027. The agreement deal takes effect in June of 2027, when the state's taxpayer funded zero-emission credit program expires.

With the arrival of Meta, Clinton’s clean energy output will expand by 30 megawatts, preserve 1,100 local jobs and bring in $13.5 million in annual tax revenue, according to the companies.

“Securing clean, reliable energy is necessary to continue advancing our AI ambitions,” said Urvi Parekh, Meta’s head of global energy.

Surging investments in small nuclear reactors comes at a time when large tech companies are facing two major demands: a need to increase their energy supply for AI and data centers, among other needs, while also trying to meet their long-term goals to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions. Those emissions are generated, in large part, from the burning of fossil fuels like gasoline, oil and coal. Nuclear energy, while producing waste, does not emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.

Constellation, the owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, said in September that it planned to restart the reactor so tech giant Microsoft could secure power to supply its data centers. Three Mile Island, located on the Susquehanna River just outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident in 1979.

Also last fall, Amazon said it was investing in small nuclear reactors, two days after a similar announcement by Google. Additionally, Google announced last month that it was investing in three advanced nuclear energy projects with Elementl Power.

US states have been positioning themselves to meet the tech industry’s power needs as policymakers consider expanding subsidies and gutting regulatory obstacles.

Last year, 25 states passed legislation to support advanced nuclear energy, and lawmakers this year have introduced over 200 bills supportive of nuclear energy, according to the trade association Nuclear Energy Institute.

Advanced reactor designs from competing firms are filling up the federal government’s regulatory pipeline as the industry touts them as a reliable, climate-friendly way to meet electricity demands from tech giants desperate to power their fast-growing artificial intelligence platforms.

Amazon, Google and Microsoft also have been investing in solar and wind technologies, which make electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions.

Shares of Constellation Energy Corp., based in Baltimore, were flat Tuesday.