Japan Says Progress Made on $550B Pact, with AI and Chips Weighing Heavily on the Next Round
Tokyo negotiated a vehicle it controls and can point at semiconductors, and Brussels negotiated a forecast about private companies plus a purchase commitment.
September 5, 2026 – 11:35 am
Japan’s trade minister stated that discussions on artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors will carry “very significant weight” in the upcoming round of projects under its $550B investment pact with the United States. Ryosei Akazawa made these remarks in Washington, as reported by Bloomberg News.
Two rounds have been finalized thus far:
- The first allocated $36B to American oil, gas, and mineral projects.
- The second committed $73B to a nuclear project across Tennessee and Alabama, along with gas power plants in Pennsylvania and Texas.
This amounts to $109B out of the $550B pledged after over a year, none of which has been allocated to AI or chips.
The structure of this agreement is noteworthy: Japan secured a pot of money and a process for selecting its purchases, allowing its minister to publicly announce the focus of the next tranche.
In contrast, Europe’s framework, signed in August 2025, at the same 15% tariff ceiling, merely forecasts private company investments of an additional $600B across strategic sectors in the US by 2028, with no European official selecting projects or announcing tranches. The EU intends to purchase at least $40B worth of US AI chips for its computing centers, alongside $750B in American energy over the same period.
While Europe has opened bidding for up to seven AI gigafactories worth approximately EUR 30B, with around EUR 1B committed from Brussels, Japan holds the power to direct its investment towards specific areas.
As reported by TNW in July, this marks the beginning of a tech battle between these two entities, as Europe agrees on what to spend while Japan decides where to allocate its funds.