Kawasaki opens a physical AI centre in San Jose with NVIDIA, Microsoft, Analog Devices and Fujitsu, starting with hospital robots

Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. has opened a development centre for physical AI in Silicon Valley and lined up four large technology partners, choosing hospitals rather than factories as its first market. The Kawasaki Physical AI Center San Jose held its opening ceremony on May 21, the company said in a release dated May 22. The centre is set up as a base of Kawasaki Heavy Industries (USA), Inc. and sits inside the San Jose building of Kawasaki Robotics Inc.

Kawasaki named NVIDIA, Analog Devices, Microsoft and Fujitsu as partners and gave each a theme. With NVIDIA it will create new solutions combining AI and robotics, starting with medicine. With Analog Devices it aims to build robots that can handle a wide range of tasks by combining AI, audio and manipulation technology. Microsoft's cloud and AI platforms are meant to speed deployment in the real world, and Fujitsu will link business systems, robot systems and AI to offer new value in healthcare. The release did not disclose investment amounts, staffing or financial terms.

At the ceremony, attended by representatives of AI companies and Japanese government officials who helped set up the centre, President Yasuhiko Hashimoto said the centre would first concentrate on medical and nursing care, fields facing ageing populations and labour shortages worldwide. He said Kawasaki would combine physical AI and robotics to establish a hospital one-stop solution supporting patients from arrival through examination, treatment, surgery and post-operative care, while applying the same technology to semiconductors, automotive and new mobility. According to the company's summary of his remarks, the aim is physical AI that supports human judgment and action safely and efficiently, not one that replaces people.

NVIDIA chief executive Jensen Huang sent a video message for the opening, as did Jacques Marescaux, whom Kawasaki described as a world authority on robotic surgery, according to the release.

The centre will build on products already in Kawasaki's portfolio: the autonomous service robot Nyokkey, the indoor delivery robot FORRO, the hinotori surgical robot (a Medicaroid trademark), and CORLEO, a robotic multi-legged vehicle. FORRO is already moving into hospitals. In April alone, Kawasaki announced that the robot had started operating at four Japanese hospitals, including Tokyo Women's Medical University Yachiyo Medical Center and Kobe City Nishi-Kobe Medical Center.

Kawasaki argues that its advantage lies in real-world data. The company said physical AI, which perceives and acts autonomously in physical space through machines, needs data about the real world, and that its aerospace, shipbuilding, energy, plant and motorcycle businesses have accumulated such data and know-how for decades. It chose Silicon Valley, it said, because it already sells and services robots for semiconductor manufacturing equipment there, where it holds the world's top share. The San Jose centre will work with development sites in Japan and with Kawasaki Innovation Centre Europe SAS, an R&D centre in Strasbourg that began operating in March 2026.

The robot business it is building on is modest within the group but growing. In results released on May 12, Kawasaki reported robot orders of ¥105.3 billion for the year to March 2026, up ¥3.6 billion, and robot sales of ¥92.9 billion, down ¥1.6 billion. For the current year it forecasts robot orders of ¥120.0 billion and sales of ¥115.0 billion, a rise of 24%. Robot sales to semiconductor equipment makers are expected to grow from ¥37.9 billion to ¥46.0 billion, the company's presentation showed. The precision machinery and robot segment as a whole is forecast to grow sales from ¥259.1 billion to ¥310.0 billion and business profit from ¥14.3 billion to ¥21.0 billion.

The group is also spending more on new ventures. Head-office investment in new businesses, booked in the corporate adjustment line, is set to rise from ¥12.2 billion to ¥20.0 billion this year, and group R&D spending from ¥56.8 billion to ¥65.5 billion. Kawasaki said it will invest with priority in physical AI, including medical applications, and in semiconductors.

In industrial robots Kawasaki is the smallest of Japan's three big makers. FANUC's robot segment sold ¥378.6 billion in the year to March 2026 and Yaskawa Electric's ¥247.0 billion in the year to February. FANUC announced collaborations with Google and NVIDIA the week before Kawasaki's opening.

The healthcare focus brings its own hurdles. Hospital deployments require regulatory approval for medical devices such as hinotori, long procurement cycles and integration with hospital IT, and the release gave no timeline for the one-stop solution or for products developed at the centre. The partnerships are described as collaboration themes rather than contracts, and none has a disclosed value.