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a Japanese flag fluttering in the wind in the distance in front of a building in TokyoImage Credits: David Mareuil / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

AI

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What to watch for after Jensen Huang’s Japan visit

Kate Park

2:16 PM PDT · July 19, 2026

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Nvidia’s chief Jensen Huang spent two days — July 15 and 16 — in Tokyo, courting Japan’s industrial and chip-supply elite, weeks after a keynote in Taiwan, and months after a visit to South Korea. He left with deals spanning Japan’s entire tech ecosystem: a national AI factory, partnerships with the country’s leading robotics companies, and agreements with the chip-material suppliers powering Nvidia’s next generation of AI chips. His message was clear. Nvidia is targeting Japan’s factory floor, and many of the country’s biggest manufacturers are joining in. AI’s next chapter, Huang said, belongs to factory floors, robots, and machines, and he wants Japan to build it.

Thirty years ago, a $5 million Sega investment helped keep a near-bankrupt Nvidia afloat; today, Nvidia and Japan’s industrial giants need each other again — this time to build the physical-AI era, starting with these three projects:

Noetra — Japan’s sovereign-AI play. The country doesn’t want to run its factories and robots on American or Chinese AI. So, the government pulled together roughly 44 domestic firms, with SoftBank, Sony,  NEC and Honda at the core, to build its own AI for robots, vehicles and factory floors. Tokyo is committing up to 1 trillion yen ($6.2 billion) over five years, a bet on homegrown “physical AI”,  foundation models built to run machines. Japan wants to own the software brain. The hardware to build it, though, still comes from Nvidia. The U.S chip giant is building “a Vera Rubin AI factory”, a massive data center packed with its next-generation chips, expected to launch in 2028, with 13,750 Vera CPUs and 27,500 Rubin GPUs, delivering 140 megawatts. Noetra will oversee the effort, with plans to build the data center. Noetra’s plan runs in three stages: a reasoning model heavy on Japanese-language skills starting in fiscal 2026; an omni-modal version handling text, images, video, and audio by 2028; and “Real-world Native AI” built to run robots by 2030, released to outside Noetra developers in phases.

The robotics coalition  — Japan’s industrial giants line up behind Cosmos. Nvidia is targeting Japan’s factory floor, and many of the country’s top robotics and manufacturing players are signing on. Fanuc, Yaskawa, Kawasaki Heavy, Fujitsu, Hitachi, NEC, Sony, SoftBank, Kubota and robotics group AIRoA say they  plan to build on Nvidia’s Cosmos models, an open-model effort Nvidia started in May with a handful of global AI labs. In Tokyo, Nvidia gave them a reason to commit, unveiling Cosmos 3 Edge, a version of the model that runs on its Jetson Thor chips inside the machines themselves. Some are already testing a shared control system; others, like Honda R&D and Omron, are building on the tools now. “The next frontier of AI is in the physical world, and this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Japan,” Huang said in the company’s statement. “Japan invented modern manufacturing. Now, it has the opportunity to reinvent it for the age of intelligent industries.”

Toyota — cars and physical AI. Toyota uses Nvidia chips across much of its stack. It committed its next-generation vehicles to Nvidia’s Drive platform at CES in January 2025; the newer work extends Nvidia into its manufacturing, where simulations are used to design production lines, into the software that runs its vehicles, and into systems that read road traffic. Toyota’s cars will run advanced driver assistance, which steers and brakes but still requires a driver, a more conservative approach than Waymo and Tesla, which are developing systems that rely less on a human driver.

Why it matters

Huang’s visit put physical AI at the center of Japan’s industrial strategy, and Tokyo is spending to back it. Facing a shrinking workforce, Japan wants 10 million AI-equipped robots across 18 sectors by 2040, backed by $65 billion in public and private physical-AI investment.

The longer game is bigger. Japan’s AI Robotics Strategy, released in March, aims to capture more than 30% of the global AI robotics market by 2040, a market Tokyo values at roughly ¥20 trillion, or about $133 billion.  METI is funding a domestic foundation model to run the machines, and Noetra’s Nvidia-powered factory is where models of that scale, into the trillions of parameters, would be trained. The wager is that Japan’s factory-floor data and manufacturing base can do for physical AI

Underneath the industrial case is a sovereign one. As the U.S. and China pull ahead in large-scale AI, Tokyo wants its own data, its own compute, and less dependence on infrastructure it doesn’t control. Huang appeared on July 16 alongside trade minister Ryosei Akazawa at the government’s physical-AI launch, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi joining by video. The Takaichi administration has made AI and semiconductors the centerpiece of a growth plan chasing ¥370 trillion ($2.3 trillion) in public and private investment by 2040. Noetra’s factory — which Nvidia bills as “the world’s first national AI infrastructure” — is the clearest bet yet. Japan’s push for independence, at least for now, rests on American chips.ndence runs on American silicon.

Working the whole room

In two days, Huang sat across from nearly every name that matters in Japanese tech — the CEOs of Toyota, Fanuc, Yaskawa, Fujitsu and Kawasaki over lunch, and dozens of supply-chain chiefs over skewers and whisky in a Kanda izakaya.

It’s the same playbook he ran weeks earlier — a homecoming keynote in Taiwan, fried chicken, and a 50,000-GPU deal in Seoul last fall. This time, it was Tokyo’s turn, with the robots, the supply chain, and the chips underneath.

Topics

AI, Asia, Japan, Japan, Jensen Huang, nvidia

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Kate Park

Kate Park

Reporter, Asia

Kate Park on Twitter

Kate Park is a reporter at TechCrunch, with a focus on technology, startups and venture capital in Asia. She previously was a financial journalist at Mergermarket covering M&A, private equity and venture capital.

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Transportation

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All the EVs that were discontinued or killed off in the U.S. this year

Kirsten Korosec

9:30 AM PDT · July 18, 2026

The Honda Prologue, you may have heard, is officially dead — a decision the company confirmed to TechCrunch, removing the last all-electric vehicle from the automaker’s U.S. portfolio. The Prologue’s departure signals more than Honda’s EV backpedaling. It also illustrates a broader EV industry retreat from the U.S. market (in stark contrast to the rest of the world).

The demise of the Honda Prologue got us thinking: What other EVs have left the U.S., and why?

The end of the $7,500 federal tax credit had an outsized effect on EV sales in the United States. But there are other reasons behind the winnowing choices, including tariffs, changing consumer tastes, costs, company priorities, and regulatory action. According to data published in July by Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive, 247,226 EVs were sold in the second quarter or about 5.8% of the total market. While EV sales grew between the first and second quarters of 2026, they are still down from the same period last year (and before that tax credit ended in fall 2025).

Still Americans are still buying EVs, and there are new EVs entering the U.S. market — the Rivian R2 is one example. And there are signs of a slow recovery. Fourth quarter 2025 sales were 36% lower than the same period in 2024. This year that gap has narrowed, albeit still below sales figures from the previous year. For example, EV sales in Q2 were 20.5% lower than the same period in 2025.

Even with a recovery underway, automakers are pulling the plug on many EV modes. Here are those ones that have left or are leaving. TechCrunch will periodically update this list of EVs that have left, or are leaving, the U.S. market in 2026.

Afeela

Afeela prototype at the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas.Image Credits: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg / Getty Images

Ah, Afeela we never even knew ya.

The Afeela got its start as the Vision S, a prototype announced by Sony in 2020 at the Consumer Electronics and that ended up being one of the big, surprising reveals of the annual tech trade show. Honda entered the picture in 2022 when the two Japanese conglomerates announced a joint venture; they showed off an Afeela-branded prototype the following year.

In the months and years that followed, there was constant barrage of updates about the Afeela, which seemed to be everywhere, and yet nowhere. It was even displayed at TechCrunch Disrupt one year.

The Afeela, despite the marketing blitz, never made it into production. In March 2026, the joint venture gave up on the two Afeela-branded EVs. The move followed Honda’s decision, announced just a two weeks before, to cancel three EVs planned for the U.S. market.

Honda (and Acura!)

Honda 0 SUVHonda 0 SUVImage Credits: Honda

It was just a couple of years ago that Honda declared its EV ambitions with its O Series, including a mid-sized SUV prototype that debuted at the CES 2025 tech trade show and its futuristic Saloon and Space-Hub concepts the year before. The SUV, which was slated for production at Honda’s “EV Hub” factory in Ohio, was supposed to debut in North America in the first half of 2026.

Honda stopped development of the Acura RDX, Honda O sedan and SUV in March 2026 as part of a major overhaul of the company’s EV plans. The company blamed U.S. tariffs and Chinese competition for the decision.

There was also chatter at the time that Honda was planning to stop production of the Prologue, but there was no official announcement until July 16 when CarBuzz was the first to report that the Prologue program was ending. TechCrunch confirmed with Honda that the Prologue was going out of production.

The death of the Series 0 is difficult to measure since it never went into production. The Prologue represented more grounded goals than the O Series, and one that actually went into production and sold to U.S. consumers. The Prologue was a product of a partnership with General Motors — it is built at GM’s Ramos Assembly Plant in Mexico — and closely related to the Chevrolet Blazer EV. And it did OK for awhile, selling roughly 33,000 units in 2024 and 39,000 in 2025, before the tax credit ended and sales went into a free fall.

Hyundai

Image Credits: Hyundai / Hyundai

The Korean automaker has actually done quite well selling EVs to Americans. But it has made a few changes based on changing economics. In March, the company said it would no longer sell the Hyundai Ioniq 6 in the U.S., a decision that was likely tied to tariffs. The Ioniq 6 is made in South Korean and imported to the U.S., while its Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 models are assembled at its Georgia factory.

The company has said it will continue to import its more expensive, lower volume N-model of the Ioniq 6.

Nissan

Nissan decided last year it would not produce a 2026 model year of its all-electric Ariya SUV for the U.S. market. And it doesn’t appear to be returning. Nissan first unveiled the Ariya in 2020 and planned to start selling it in Japan the following year.

The Ariya was the first all-electric to come out of Nissan since the early EV pioneer introduced the Leaf hatchback a decade ago.

Polestar

PolestarImage Credits: Polestar

Swedish EV maker Polestar, owned by Chinese automotive giant Geely, has been forced to leave U.S. over the country’s ban on Chinese-connected vehicle technology. Polestar needed specific authorization from the U.S. Department of Commerce to continue importing and selling its vehicles in the United States.

Without it, Polestar has been effectively banned from the United States. The company said it would continue selling its existing stock of Polestar 3 and Polestar 4 vehicles in the U.S., and that it will “continue to support customers, including providing access to its service network.” The Polestar 3 was assembled at a factory in South Carolina and in Chengdu, China.

Volvo Cars, Polestar’s sibling company that is also owned by Geely, did receive the authorization.

Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X

A Tesla Model S in Palo Alto, California.Image Credits: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty Images

Tesla announced in January that it would end production of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV to make way for what the company views is the future. And it’s not a traditional electric sedan or SUV. In Tesla’s view, the future is AI, autonomy, and robots. It’s worth noting that sales of the S and X have fallen steadily over the years as consumers turned to its high volume and cheaper vehicles, the Model 3 and Model Y.

The last Model S and X vehicles rolled off the assembly line this spring. The company recently removed the assembly lines for the S and X at its Fremont, California factory to make room for production of its Optimus robots.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen ID.4 GTX on a snowy roadImage Credits: Volkswagen

Volkswagen has pulled back on the ID. 4 electric SUV and the ID Buzz.

In April, Volkswagen said it would no longer produce the ID.4 at its U.S. factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee in a shift to high-volume vehicles like its upcoming gas-powered Atlas SUV. The company said, at the time, U.S. customers will be able to buy the ID.4 until the current inventory runs out. VW said it expects U.S. inventory to last into 2027.

To be clear, Volkswagen has said the ID Buzz is merely on a hiatus and will return in 2027. But there is no 2026 model.

There are, however self-driving versions of the ID buzz currently being tested in the United States. Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA America and Uber started testing autonomous microbuses in Los Angeles in April in preparation for a robotaxi service that is supposed to launch in late 2026. When the service initially launches there the vehicles will have himan safety operators.

Volvo

volvo ex30 EV moss yellowImage Credits: Volvo

Volvo decided in March that it would pull its subcompact EX30 and EX30 Cross Country variant from the U.S. market. The company said at the time that production for the U.S. would end sfter the summer. The EX30 had a promising start. It recieved a lot of attention prior to it official entry into the U.S. in 2025, and it was the company’s more affordable EV option.

Volvo does plan to continue selling the larger, all-electric EX60 and EX90 SUVs in the United States.

Topics

honda, hyundai, Polestar, Tesla, Transportation

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

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Kirsten Korosec

Kirsten Korosec

Transportation Editor

Kirsten Korosec on TwitterKirsten Korosec on FacebookKirsten Korosec on Linkedin

Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.

You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.

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