OpenAI opens its first Asia office in Tokyo

OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, has recently announced the opening of its first Asian office in Tokyo, Japan. The move is being seen as the AI company's ongoing effort to grow revenue sources globally.

"This is just the first step in what I hope will be a long-term partnership with the people of Japan, government leaders, businesses and research institutions," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a video message.

Altman and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap have hosted hundreds of Fortune 500 company executives in the United States and Britain this month to pitch for business, Reuters has reported.

Last year Altman said he was considering a Japan location after meeting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The startup has also opened offices in London and Dublin.

Japan hopes to take advantage of AI to compete with an increasingly assertive China, accelerate the shift to digital services and alleviate deepening labour shortages.

"We have a backlog of demand," Lightcap told reporters in Tokyo, adding that "we expect a meaningful contribution from Japan over time," without providing details.

OpenAI said it has a custom model optimised for the Japanese language and that Tadao Nagasaki, who was president of Amazon Web Services in Japan, is heading the Japan business.

While the country is seen as a laggard in technology, local companies including telcos SoftBank and NTT are investing in large language models.