Gate News message, April 13. Recently, four companies—SoftBank, NEC, Honda, and Sony Group—jointly established a new company called “Japan AI Foundation Model Development,” focusing on artificial intelligence development. The company plans to gather around 100 AI developers, with the president position held by a SoftBank executive. In addition to the four lead companies, Nippon Steel, Kobe Steel, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank, and the AI development company Preferred Networks also participate in the investment. The company will use support from the Japanese government to build domestically produced AI foundation models and will provide AI services to Japanese enterprises. Among them, SoftBank and NEC are responsible for development work, while Honda will apply the developed results to the field of autonomous driving. The developed AI will be broadly opened to Japanese companies beyond the investing enterprises, and in the future it will also expand into robot control AI fields.