Sakana AI Secures Over $100M in Series A Funding to Advance Nature-Inspired AI

Tokyo-based AI startup Sakana AI has raised more than $100 million in a Series A funding round, marking a significant milestone in its mission to develop transformative, nature-inspired artificial intelligence. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates, Khosla Ventures, and Lux Capital, with participation from NVIDIA.

Founded in mid-2023 by former Google AI leaders Llion Jones and David Ha, Sakana AI has quickly distinguished itself in the crowded AI landscape. Jones, a co-author of the transformative "Attention Is All You Need" paper, and Ha, previously head of Google's AI research in Japan, are pioneering AI systems inspired by natural phenomena.

Unlike many AI labs that focus on scaling existing transformer-based architectures, Sakana AI’s research is inspired by natural systems such as evolution and collective intelligence. The company’s name,さかな (sa-ka-na), meaning “fish” in Japanese, reflects this ethos—like a school of fish that moves in unison without central coordination, Sakana’s models aim to operate through decentralized, swarm-like intelligence.

This massive round comes just six months after the company's $30 million seed round, bringing its total funding to more than $130 million within its first year of operation.

Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, praised Sakana AI's innovative approach: "While many labs globally are trying to catch up and train foundation models using the same techniques as everyone else, Japan's Sakana AI is showing the path to innovation."

The funding will enable Sakana AI to expand its team, invest in infrastructure, and accelerate the development of new foundation models based on nature-inspired intelligence. The company plans to tackle challenges facing Japan, including an aging population, declining global competitiveness, and geopolitical tensions.

In addition to the funding, Sakana AI announced a collaboration with NVIDIA spanning research, infrastructure, and AI community building in Japan. This partnership will provide Sakana AI with access to NVIDIA's GPU technologies and early access to data centers, supporting the startup's ambitious research goals.

Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's founder and CEO, highlighted the importance of this collaboration: "Countries are embracing Sovereign AI to capture and codify their data, culture, and language through their own unique large language models. The team at Sakana AI is helping spur the democratization of AI in Japan."

The startup has already demonstrated practical applications of its nature-inspired approach. In July, it released two image generation models, Evo-Ukiyoe and Evo-Nishikie, showcasing AI's potential to preserve and reimagine cultural heritage.