Tokyo becomes first foreign partner in US Genesis AI project

Japan will join the US in the Genesis Mission, a government AI program that aims to speed up scientific research. Both countries will spend $1 billion over five years to work together on developing technology.

The partnership positions Tokyo alongside Washington in a bid to outpace China in artificial intelligence and related fields. Senior officials from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry are expected to travel to the U.S. in early June to formally announce the arrangement with the Department of Energy, which oversees the mission, according to The Japan News.

Trump initiated Genesis to link laboratories and artificial intelligence

In late 2025, Trump signed an executive order that started the Genesis Mission. It directed federal agencies to combine their AI research projects, computing infrastructure, and datasets into a single framework.

The initiative links supercomputers and scientific data from national laboratories with AI systems to expedite experiments, simulations, and calculations across 26 research domains. The domains encompass semiconductor development, biotechnology, nuclear fusion, and quantum technologies.

The White House has compared the initiative’s ambition to the Manhattan Project and the Apollo Program. Twenty four companies signed on when the mission launched in December 2025, including OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Google.

Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in December that the mission would “dramatically increase the productivity of American scientists and researchers” by helping them “automate experiment design, accelerate simulations, and generate predictive models.”

Tokyo brings robotics and chip expertise to the table

Tokyo is seeking closer ties with Washington as it competes with China for AI dominance. Japan brings its own strengths in materials science, robotics, and semiconductor manufacturing. All three areas overlap with the Genesis Mission’s 26 target fields.

The executive order that set up the mission makes it clear that it wants to work with other countries. It tells the National Science and Technology Council to work with the Office of Science and Technology Policy to find foreign partners whose research skills match the mission’s goals.

The Genesis Mission’s executive order requires the Energy Secretary to review and update the project’s research priorities annually. It also mandates standardized rules for partnerships, including data access, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and export controls. Those frameworks will now need to accommodate an international partner for the first time.

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