OpenAI’s Japanese Rival Gets $1 Billion Valuation From Silicon Valley Investors

In their hunt for artificial intelligence investments, U.S. venture capitalists are looking past Silicon Valley at foreign AI startups, betting that locally developed large-language models will outperform imports from the U.S.

The latest to win their affections is Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based large-language model developer. Founded last year by alumni of Google’s DeepMind, Sakana is raising around $100 million in a new financing co-led by New Enterprise Associates and existing investors Lux Capital and Khosla Ventures, according to three people with direct knowledge of the deal. The round values the company, which does not yet generate revenue, at approximately $1 billion, the people said.