This US$2bil AI startup aims to teach factory robots to think

Toru Nishikawa, co-founder and chief executive officer of Preferred Networks Inc., poses for a photograph in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, March 16, 2018. Preferred Networks has only one publicly available product, a whimsical application that uses artificial intelligence to automate the coloring of manga cartoons. Yet the four-year-old firm has become Japan's most valuable startup, with a venture capital funding that priced it at more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Japan’s Preferred Networks Inc has only one publicly available product, a whimsical application that uses artificial intelligence to automate the colouring of manga cartoons. 

Yet the four-year-old firm has become Japan’s most valuable startup, with a venture capital funding that priced it at more than US$2bil (RM7.93bil), according to people familiar with the matter. Toyota Motor Corp, its biggest backer, handed over US$110mil (RM436.64mil) on a bet its algorithms will help them compete with Google in driverless cars. Last February, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe posed for pictures with the firm’s two young founders at his office, where they were awarded a prize for promising new ventures.