NVIDIA & SoftBank to develop Japan's leading AI supercomputer

NVIDIA and SoftBank have joined forces to build Japan's most powerful AI supercomputer using the NVIDIA Blackwell platform, with plans to employ the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform for the next phase of the project.

This collaboration, as announced by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang, aims to accelerate Japan's sovereign AI initiatives and enhance its global technology leadership while opening significant revenue opportunities for telecommunications providers internationally.

NVIDIA also revealed that SoftBank has piloted the world's first combined AI and 5G telecom network using the NVIDIA AI Aerial accelerated computing platform. This development could unlock billions of dollars in potential AI revenue streams for telecom operators.

Alongside these initiatives, SoftBank plans to create an AI marketplace with the help of NVIDIA AI Enterprise software to meet Japan's demand for local, secure AI computing. This endeavor supports AI training and edge AI inference, positioning SoftBank as a central AI hub within the country.

"Japan has a long history of pioneering technological innovations with global impact," said Huang. "With SoftBank's significant investment in NVIDIA's full-stack AI, Omniverse and 5G AI-RAN platforms, Japan is leaping into the AI industrial revolution to become a global leader, driving a new era of growth across the telecommunications, transportation, robotics and healthcare industries in ways that will greatly benefit humankind in the age of AI."

Junichi Miyakawa, President and CEO of SoftBank, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership. "Countries and regions worldwide are accelerating the adoption of AI for social and economic growth, and society is undergoing significant transformation," he said. "Through our long collaboration with NVIDIA, SoftBank is leading this transformation from the forefront. With our extremely powerful AI infrastructure and our new, distributed AI-RAN solution 'AITRAS' that reinvents 5G networks for AI, we will accelerate innovation across the country and throughout the world."

SoftBank is set to receive the world's first NVIDIA DGX B200 systems, beginning the construction of its NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD supercomputer. This powerhouse is designed for use in generative AI development and AI-related activities by various Japanese universities, research institutions, and businesses.

In addition to the DGX SuperPOD, plans for a new supercomputer based on the NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform are underway. This initiative will feature NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 multi-node, liquid-cooled systems that blend NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs with NVIDIA Grace CPUs.

SoftBank and NVIDIA have reached a milestone with the AI-RAN solution, a telecommunications network that can simultaneously handle AI and 5G workloads. During a trial in Kanagawa prefecture, SoftBank demonstrated carrier-grade 5G performance while using network capacity for AI inference workloads.

The AI-RAN network promises to transform traditional telco networks by utilising excess capacity, allowing for AI inference services that generate additional revenue. NVIDIA and SoftBank estimate a return of up to 219% for every AI-RAN server added to infrastructure.

Ronnie Vasishta, Senior Vice President of Telecom at NVIDIA, remarked on the significance of this development. "Shifting from single-purpose to multi-purpose AI-RAN networks can mean 5x the revenue for every dollar of capex invested," he said. "SoftBank's live field trial marks a huge step toward AI-RAN commercialisation with the validation of technology feasibility, performance and economics."

Ryuji Wakikawa, Vice President and Head of the Research Institute of Advanced Technology at SoftBank, shared his thoughts on the advancement. "SoftBank's 'AITRAS' is the first AI-RAN solution developed through a five-year collaboration with NVIDIA," he said. "We are confident this AI-driven innovation, AITRAS, will pave the way for new business models in telecommunications, serving as a crucial factor in the transformation of mobile operators."