Tokyo, September 17, 2024 -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (“MUFG”) and its consolidated subsidiary, MUFG Bank, Ltd., along with MUFG Innovation Partners Co., Ltd., today announced that they have entered into an investment agreement with Sakana AI K.K. (“Sakana AI”), an AI R&D company. As a result of this agreement, MUFG has become Sakana AI’s largest Japanese corporate investor.
Founded in July 2023, in about a year Sakana AI achieved unicorn status with a valuation exceeding one billion dollars. The company is led by David Ha, who has overseen complex systems and autonomous systems research as the head of Google Brain’s research team in Japan; Llion Jones, one of the authors of the seminal paper “Attention Is All You Need,” which catalyzed the development of the “Transformer” AI model, leading to the explosive proliferation of current generative AI; and Ren Ito, who has been involved in diplomacy and global business operations at Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Mercari, Inc. Sakana AI boasts top-tier global talent and has achieved innovative milestones such as “Evolutionary Model Merge,” a method for merging multiple AI models, and “The AI Scientist,” the first comprehensive system for fully automatic scientific discovery, enabling foundation models to perform research independently. These groundbreaking initiatives are expected to further advance AI development from multiple perspectives.
In its Medium-term Business Plan, which commenced in April 2024, MUFG has committed to enhancing its AI capabilities and data infrastructure to achieve data-driven management as well as to improve productivity and customer value. This commitment falls under the theme “Accelerate Transformation & Innovation,” which is one of the three pillars of the plan. By leveraging Sakana AI’s advanced technological capabilities and innovative model development methods, MUFG aims to further elevate its AI strategy.
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About MUFG
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) is one of the world’s leading financial groups. Headquartered in Tokyo and with over 360 years of history, MUFG has a global network with approximately 2,000 locations in more than 40 countries. The Group has about 120,000 employees and offers services including commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing. The Group aims to “be the world’s most trusted financial group” through close collaboration among our operating companies and flexibly respond to all of the financial needs of our customers, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world. MUFG’s shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York stock exchanges. For more information, visit https://www.mufg.jp/english.
About MUIP
MUIP was established in January 2019 as the corporate venture capital arm of Japan’s leading financial group, MUFG, to promote its open innovation strategy. MUIP currently runs 5 funds (about 650 million USD in total), making strategic investments in startups globally and driving business collaboration between the startups and MUFG group companies.
For more information, visit https://www.ip.mufg.jp/.
About Sakana AI
Founded in July 2023 and based in Tokyo, Sakana AI K.K. (Sakana AI), is a rapidly growing AI R&D company, led by David Ha, Llion Jones, and Ren Ito. Sakana AI has already achieved significant and innovative milestones, including “Evolutionary Model Merge,” a method for merging multiple AI models, and “The AI Scientist,” the first comprehensive system for fully automatic scientific discovery, enabling foundation models to perform research independently.
For more information, visit https://sakana.ai/blog/.
