Sam Nussey
TOKYO (Reuters) – Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup OpenAI made a business pitch in Japan on Monday, opening its first Asian office in Tokyo.
“This is just the first step in 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 created a buzz among consumers since launching generative AI chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022, is looking to find new revenue streams globally.
Altman and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap this month invited hundreds of executives from Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. and U.K. to make a business pitch, Reuters reported.
Last year, Altman said he was considering a post in Japan after meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The startup has also opened offices in London and Dublin.
Japan hopes to reap the benefits of AI as it seeks to compete with an increasingly assertive China, accelerate its shift to digital services and ease a growing labor shortage.
“We have a backlog of demand,” Lightcap told reporters in Tokyo, adding that “we expect significant contribution from Japan over time,” without elaborating.
OpenAI said it has its own model optimized for Japanese and that the Japanese business is led by Tadao Nagasaki, who was president of Amazon (NASDAQ:) Web Services in Japan.
Although the country is considered a technology laggard, local companies including telecoms SoftBank (TYO:) and NTT are investing in major language models.
OpenAI’s clients in Japan include automakers. Toyota Motor (NYSE:), manufacturer Daikin Industries and local governments.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:) said last week it will invest $2.9 billion over two years in cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Japan, part of a global wave of investment by US tech giants.