OpenAI, a Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup, has announced the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan. The company, known for its ChatGPT generative AI chatbot, is seeking to expand its global revenue sources. CEO Sam Altman and COO Brad Lightcap have been meeting with executives from Fortune 500 companies in the United States and Britain to attract new business opportunities.
Altman had expressed interest in establishing a presence in Japan after a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. OpenAI has already opened offices in London and Dublin. With Japan looking to leverage AI technology to compete with China, boost digital services, and address labor shortages, OpenAI sees potential in the Japanese market. The company has a custom model optimized for the Japanese language, and Tadao Nagasaki, former president of Amazon Web Services in Japan, is leading the Japan business.
Despite Japan being viewed as a technology laggard compared to other countries like China and South Korea, local companies like SoftBank and NTT are investing heavily in large language models. This trend aligns with major U.S. tech companies increasingly focusing on investments in global markets as they look to expand their reach beyond North America into new markets like Europe and Asia.
