KDDI and Google Open AI Startup Program in Japan

Jul 29, 2026
KDDI and Google AI Futures Fund have launched a joint program for Japanese AI startups, offering equity investment, early model access, cloud credits, GPU infrastructure, and expert support.
KDDI and Google Open AI Startup Program in Japan

KDDI Corporation and Google AI Futures Fund have launched the AI Startup Support Program by KDDI & Google AI Futures Fund for Japanese startups. Applications opened on July 28, 2026.

Selected startups can receive equity investment from KDDI and Google AI Futures Fund. The program also offers early access to Google AI models, including Gemini, Nano Banana, and Lyria.

The program includes Google Cloud credits, access to Gemini on GDC through KDDI's Osaka-Sakai Data Center, and access to KDDI GPU Cloud. Startups will also receive technical and business support from Google and KDDI researchers, engineers, product managers, and designers.

The program is aimed at Japanese AI startups seeking to build products and expand outside Japan.

We hope you enjoyed this article

Consider subscribing to one of our newsletters like Enterprise AI Brief, AI Funding Brief or Daily AI Brief.

Also, consider following us on social media:

Enterprise AI AI Funding News AI Brief AI Brief (X)
Free newsletter

Enterprise AI Brief

Weekly report on AI business applications, enterprise software releases, automation tools, and industry implementations.

AI Token Webinar

Whitepaper

Tensordyne Napier: What If One Rack Could Do the Work of Nine?

Tensordyne

This Tensordyne whitepaper presents Napier, an inference-focused AI processor and rack-scale system based on the company’s TDN Math logarithmic number system. It examines infrastructure requirements for large mixture-of-experts and agentic models, compares major inference architecture approaches, and details the TDN AIP processor, TDN72 pod, TDN Link fabric, and Napier Ultra configuration. The paper reports simulation-based performance, cost, and accuracy-validation results, including Tensordyne’s projected comparison of one Napier rack with a nine-rack Nvidia Rubin plus Groq deployment; the chip is reported as taped out and in fabrication.

Read more

You may also like

Free, six days a week

Daily AI Brief: the AI news that matters, in your inbox.