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Microsoft, AWS & Oracle: Why Big Tech is Investing in Japan – Technology Magazine

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AWS-commissioned research by AlphaBeta shows that cloud and cybersecurity skills will be the top two most sought-after digital skills by Japanese employers by 2025. AWS has trained over 400,000 individuals in Japan with cloud skills since 2017, providing them with in-demand cloud skills and best practices to help learners and organisations innovate in the cloud.

For over a decade, AWS has been committed to helping our Japanese customers access the latest cutting-edge technology, build digital solutions on highly resilient and secure cloud infrastructure, and adapt their businesses to maintain an edge in todays complex economic environment, said Tadao Nagasaki, President of AWS in Japan. Our investment into cloud infrastructure generates a ripple effect across the Japanese industries including the public and government sectors. It will help more Japanese organisations with the ability to access and adopt new, emerging and transformational digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. We are committed to and excited about the future of Japans digital economy.

Microsoft has also announced plans to invest in Japan over the next two years, aiming to increase hyperscale cloud computing and AI opportunities.

The company aims to do this by expanding its existing digital skills programmes with the goal of providing AI skills to more than three million people over the next three years. This follows a recent similar commitment to teach millions in India about AI by 2025.

Microsoft also plans to open its first Microsoft Research Asia lab and states it seeks to deepen its cybersecurity collaborations with the government of Japan.

The US$2.9bn commitment is Microsofts largest investment into Japan in the 46 years it has been present in the country. With this financial boost, Microsoft will be able to provide more advanced computing resources in Japan, including the latest graphics processing units (GPUs) to speed up AI workloads.

We are honoured to contribute to Japan and its future with our largest investment to date, technology and knowledge, says Miki Tsusaka, President of Microsoft Japan. In collaboration with our partners, Microsoft Japan is fully committed to supporting the people and organisations of Japan to solve social problems and achieve more.

Google Cloud has announced a US$1bn investment in digital connectivity to Japan, including the expansion of the Pacific Connect initiative and delivery of two new subsea cables, aimed at creating new fibre-optic routes between the continental United States and Japan in support of Googles Japan Digitization Initiative, while improving the reliability and resilience of digital connectivity between the US, Japan, and multiple Pacific Island countries and territories.

Subsea cables can bring economic and productivity gains to the places where they land. For example, in Japan, studies estimate Google network infrastructure investments drove an additional US$400m in GDP in the previous decade. With increased access to digital services, more people can take advantage of skill development and career opportunities, while businesses and public sector organisations can better serve their customers and constituents.

Were excited about the long-term benefits that these latest Pacific initiatives will bring to people, our users, and our customers, wrote Brian Quigley VP of Global Network Infrastructure at Google Cloud in an announcement. Well continue to share more as we continue working with partners to reduce the digital divide across the Pacific.

OpenAI meanwhile recently announced its first office in Asia, together with the release of a GPT-4 custom model optimised for the Japanese language.

The AI startup said it is providing local businesses with early access to a GPT-4 custom model specifically optimised for the Japanese language, offering improved performance in translating and summarising Japanese text and operating up to three times faster than its predecessor.

We are committed to collaborating with the Japanese government, local businesses, and research institutions to develop safe AI tools that serve Japans unique needs and to unlock new opportunities, the company said in an announcement blog. We chose Tokyo as our first Asian office for its global leadership in technology, culture of service, and a community that embraces innovation.

OpenAI says it is working with leading businesses like Daikin, Rakuten, and TOYOTA Connected who are using ChatGPT Enterprise to automate complex business processes, assist in data analysis and optimise internal reporting.

Were excited to be in Japan which has a rich history of people and technology coming together to do more, said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. We believe AI will accelerate work by empowering people to be more creative and productive, while also delivering broad value to current and new industries that have yet to be imagined.

In April Oracle Corporation Japan announced that it plans to invest more than US$8bn over the next 10 years to meet the growing demand for cloud computing and AI infrastructure in Japan. The investment will grow Oracle Cloud Infrastructures (OCI) footprint across Japan. In addition, to help customers and partners address the digital sovereignty requirements in Japan, Oracle will significantly expand its operations and support engineering teams with Japan-based personnel.

Oracle plans to increase local customer support of its public cloud regions in Tokyo and Osaka and its local operations teams for Oracle Alloy and OCI Dedicated Region. This will enable governments and businesses across Japan to continue to move their mission-critical workloads to the Oracle Cloud and embrace sovereign AI solutions.

We are dedicated to meeting our customers and partners where they are in their cloud journey, said Toshimitsu Misawa, member of the board, corporate executive officer and President of Oracle Corporation Japan. By growing our cloud footprint and providing a team to support sovereign operations in Japan, we are giving our customers and partners the opportunity to innovate with AI and other cloud services while supporting their regulatory and sovereignty requirements.

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Microsoft, AWS & Oracle: Why Big Tech is Investing in Japan - Technology Magazine

Watch Japan launch its H3 rocket on return-to-flight mission tonight – Space.com

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Japan's new H3 rocket will attempt to bounce back from an explosive failure tonight (Feb. 16), and you can watch the action live.

The H3 is scheduled to lift off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center tonight during a nearly four-hour window that opens at 7:22 p.m. EST (0022 GMT and 9:22 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Feb. 17).The launch was originally planned for Wednesday (Feb. 14), but bad weather forced a two-day delay.

You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or directly via JAXA. Coverage will begin around 6:20 p.m. EST (2320 GMT).

Related: Japan's new H3 rocket fails on 1st test flight, advanced Earth observation satellite lost

The H3 has flown just once before, on a test flight in March 2023 that attempted to send the DAICHI-3 Earth-observation satellite to orbit. The rocket's second-stage engine failed to ignite on that mission, however, resulting in loss of the satellite.

On tonight's flight, the H3 will carry two small Earth-observation satellites, called CE-SAT-IE and TIRSAT, to sun-synchronous orbit. The main payload, however, is a 5,900-pound (2,600-kilogram) mass simulator, which is standing in for a big-ticket spacecraft.

"The primary purpose of this mission is to evaluate the performance of the H3 rocket and its payload deployment mechanism," EverydayAstronaut.com wrote in a mission description.

JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been developing the H3 for the past decade. The rocket which stands either 187 feet or 207 feet (57 or 63 meters) tall depending on the choice of payload fairing will eventually replace Japan's venerable H-2A rocket, which debuted in 2001.

The H-2A hasn't been put out to pasture yet, however. It lofted the IGS Optical 8 spy satellite for the Japanese government last month, for example. And, in September 2023, it sent Japan's SLIM lander on its way to the moon. SLIM touched down on the lunar surface on Jan. 19, making Japan just the fifth nation to land softly on Earth's nearest neighbor.

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Watch Japan launch its H3 rocket on return-to-flight mission tonight - Space.com

H3 reaches orbit on second launch – SpaceNews

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Updated Feb. 17 with additional details from JAXA.

WASHINGTON Japans H3 rocket successfully reached orbit on its second launch Feb. 16, nearly a year after its inaugural launch failed.

The H3 rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 7:22 p.m. Eastern after a two-day delay caused by weather. There were no issues reported during the countdown, with liftoff occurring at the beginning of a window lasting more than two and a half hours.

A key point in the launch was the separation of the upper stage and ignition of its LE-5B-3 engine. On the vehicles inaugural launch in March 2023, that engine failed to ignite, forcing controllers to issue a destruct command to destroy the stage and its payload, the ALOS-3 Earth observation satellite.

On this launch, designated H3 Test Flight 2 (H3TF2) by the Japanese space agency JAXA, the engine did ignite. The stage reached a preliminary orbit of about 674 kilometers 16 and a half minutes after liftoff, and moments later deployed one of its payloads, the CE-SAT-1E imaging satellite built by Canon Electronics.

It was scheduled to be followed about nine minutes later by the other secondary payload, a cubesat called TIRSAT. JAXA said in a later statement that the separation signal for tIRSAT was sent, but did not explicitly state that the cubesat had deployed.

A second burn of the upper stage took place one hour and 47 minutes after liftoff, lasting 26 seconds. After that, the upper stage deployed its primary payload, a mass simulator called Vehicle Evaluation Payload (VEP) 4. VEP-4 is a metallic column with the same mass and center of gravity as ALOS-3. JAXA flew the inert payload after criticism about flying ALOS-3, a $200 million satellite, on the rockets first launch.

That second burn was designed to demonstrate the ability to perform a controlled reentry of both the upper stage and VEP-4, said Yasuo Ishii, JAXA vice president, during a session of the Space Debris Conference organized by the Saudi Space Agency Feb. 11.

JAXA and the vehicles prime contractor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, spent months investigating the inaugural launch failure. Engineers concluded that while the rocket received the signal to ignite the engine, an electrical failure prevented the ignition system from starting up.

While the investigation did not identify a single root cause, it did find three scenarios that most likely explained what happened: a short-circuit in wiring in the ignition system, a failed transistor in the ignition system and a failure in one computer in the stages control system that sent electrical current to a redundant computer that caused it to fail. JAXA made changes to prevent any of those scenarios from reoccurring.

The potential problems with the ignition system also affected the older H-2A rocket, which uses a version of the same upper-stage engine. That grounded the H-2A for half a year, with the rocket returning to flight in September.

The H3 is key to Japans future space plans. The rocket will succeed the H-2A and launch civil and military missions, including the new HTV-X spacecraft that will transport cargo to the International Space Station. The H3 is also designed to operate at far lower costs than the H-2A, making the vehicle more competitive in the commercial launch market.

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H3 reaches orbit on second launch - SpaceNews

Amazon’s AWS to invest $15 billion to expand cloud computing in Japan – Yahoo! Voices

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Amazon Web Services (AWS) said on Friday it plans to invest 2.26 trillion yen ($15.24 billion) in Japan by 2027 to expand cloud computing infrastructure that serves as a backbone for artificial technology (AI) services.

The Amazon.com unit is spending to expand facilities in the metropolises of Tokyo and Osaka to meet growing customer demand, it said in a statement.

That comes on top of 1.51 trillion yen spent from 2011 to 2022 to build up cloud capacity in Japan, AWS said. The company offers generative AI services to Japanese corporate customers including Asahi Group, Marubeni and Nomura Holdings, it said.

The investment comes as Japan's government and corporate sector race to catch up in AI development. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with the heads of ChatGPT creator OpenAI and advanced chipmaker Nvidia in the past year to discuss AI regulation and infrastructure.

($1 = 148.2700 yen)

(This story has been refiled to add dropped words 'creator OpenAI' after 'ChatGPT', in paragraph 4)

(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing)

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Amazon's AWS to invest $15 billion to expand cloud computing in Japan - Yahoo! Voices

Grimes says she’s proud of white culture after being labelled a "Nazi" – Mixmag

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Grimes has responded to backlash after she was called a Nazi by critics, alleging to be a human supremacist who is proud of white culture.

The Canadian singer, DJ, and former partner of Elon Musk responded to critics on Twitter on December 31, sparking a debate about racism and white culture.

I'm called a Nazi because I happily am proud of white culture, she claimed. But every day I think fondly of the brown king Cyrus the Great who invented the first ever empire, and the Japanese icon Murasaki Shikibu who wrote the first novel ever.

What if humans just loved each other? she said. History teaches us that we have all been, and always will be - great.

Read this next: Grimes is reportedly suing Elon Musk over parental rights

Grimes quickly came into hot water for her comments, which she made in response to critics labelling her a white supremacist for reportedly liking Nazi memes on Twitter, according to Page Six.

In reply to a Twitter user labelling the singer a white supremacist, Grimes replied: I'm a human suprematist - humans are amazing.

All cultures participated in horrible things and the industrialisation of slavery is arguably the worst of all, and arguably the cause of decline of *all* empires before this one, she said in another post.

That doesn't mean there are great humans among us in the past and now. What do u say abt the African slave trade of Slavs? It's racist to pretend whites have always been in power. All humans have contributed to our worst and best.

Read this next: Grimes and Elon Musk name third child Techno Mechanicus

Grimes was also accused of Western ignorance when she claimed, in another tweet: [People] feel they cannot be proud, so I want to emphasise the incredible accomplishments of others and integrate them into Western education whilst allowing pride for white ppl accomplishments as well.

I believe theres been a terrible erasure of non-European accomplishments and history [should] be taught much more comprehensively.

Her comments come amidst a child custody battle with Elon Musk. In October, the singer claimed that Musk has refused her access to see their children, and is now suing over parental rights.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter

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Grimes says she's proud of white culture after being labelled a "Nazi" - Mixmag

ULA’s first mission with its Vulcan rocket may slide to January launch window Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now

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ULAs Vulcan rocket sits at the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) ahead of the start of a wet dress rehearsal tanking test on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. Image: ULA

The debut of United Launch Alliances Vulcan rocket may slip from late December into early January, according to the companys president and CEO, Tory Bruno. In a social media post on Sunday, Bruno said the planned Dec. 24 launch date is likely out.

The statement comes a couple days after the rocket conducted a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR), where the vehicle was fully fueled and went the countdown was to proceed to the final seconds before cutting off. But Bruno said a couple of routine ground issues came up near the end of the test.

Ground teams were targeting a T-0 of 4:30 p.m. EST on Friday. Based on observations of venting during the operation it appeared the countdown reached its final four minutes before an abort occurred. The Vulcan vehicle left the launch pad and returned to the Vertical Integration Facility building at launch complex 41 Saturday afternoon.

Id like a full WDR before our first flight, so [Christmas] Eve is likely out, Bruno said in his post on X. He added that they are working on schedules but Spaceflight Now understands another test has been scheduled for as soon as Tuesday.

The primary payload onboard is Astrobotics Peregrine lunar lander, which will journey to the Moon. If the launch is able to happen during the December launch window (Dec. 24-26), the lander would touch down on the Moons surface at approximately 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 UTC) on Jan. 25, 2024.

Bruno said that the next launch window based on Peregrines needs opens on Jan. 8, 2024 and would likely last for four days. Dan Hendrickson, Astrobotics Vice President of Business Development, told Spaceflight Now back in October that the nominal time from launch to landing is between 30 and 39 days. It was not immediately clear if there is a different transit time for the early January launch window.

Shifting Moon race

With the launch potentially shifting to January, that changes the landscape for Moon-bound missions. Liftoff on Jan. 8 would mean Peregrine would launch just four days before the opening of the launch window for Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agencys (JAXA) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is also making its way to the Moon and is set to land around 1520 UTC on Jan. 19.

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ULA's first mission with its Vulcan rocket may slide to January launch window Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now

Three robotic missions target Moon landings over one week in January Spaceflight Now – Spaceflight Now

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Intuitive Machines engineers loading the IM-1 mission Nova-C lunar lander into its custom container in Houston, TX. Image: Intuitive Machines

In a blend of interesting circumstances and happenstance, two private companies and Japans space agency are all poised to land on the Moon in the back half of January 2024.

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines are all exercising distinct launch and landing options to reach the lunar surface. But all three have announced timelines that would see them land on the Moon within days of each other, if everything stays on track at this point.

While avoiding further timeline slipping is far from a certainty, Earths satellite could see its busiest month ever in terms of new spacecraft arriving.

As it happens, the last lander scheduled to launch could be the first to touch down on the Moon. Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander is targeting liftoff between Jan. 12-16 and is set to land at the Moons South Pole (80.297S, 1.2613E) on either Jan. 19 or 21.

A spokesperson for Intuitive Machines said the landing opportunity for both days is in the afternoon in EST.

Trent Martin, the Vice President of Lunar Access at Intuitive Machines, told Spaceflight Now in an Oct. 27 interview that they have instantaneous launch opportunities each day during their January window. He said because their lander needs to be fueled at the launch pad, crews will perform a wet dress rehearsal several days ahead of launch.

We will do a full fuel of our vehicle to ensure that we have the timeline down because we do a late fueling at the pad. We fuel with liquid oxygen and liquid methane, and we want to fuel as late as possible, Martin said. SpaceX has been very accommodating and theyre providing us a service that gives us liquid oxygen, liquid methane. Theyll fill up until the very last minute so that were as full as possible, so that we have the highest chance of success at landing on the Moon.

This mission along with the Peregrine lander will mark the first two fulfilled contracts under NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

Onboard the Nova-C lander for NASA are the following:

This mission also features a CubeSat payload called EagleCam from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which will be launched from the lander when its about 30 meters above the surface.

The camera itself is actually multiple cameras, four cameras. So as this 1U CubeSat tumbles, its taking video imagery as it falls to the surface. And so from that, within a day or two, well have video of us landing on the Moon, Martin said. So, Im super excited about that one because that will be the first time that anyones ever actually recorded themselves landing on another planetary body.

Intuitive Machines announced on Monday that its Nova-C lander for the IM-1 mission arrived at the Cape in Florida ahead of its launch next month.

Double landing possibility

JAXAs Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is spending the longest in space, having launched back on Sept. 7, but depending on the timing of the IM-1 landing, it could touch down on the same day from a Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) standpoint.

According to a statement from JAXA on Tuesday, SLIM is set to begin its descent to the lunar surface at 12:00 a.m. JST on Jan. 20 (1500 UTC on Jan. 19) and touchdown at 12:20 a.m. JST (1520 UTC).

The next big milestone in SLIMs journey is coming up on Dec. 25 when it enters into lunar orbit. JAXA stated that the 200kg dry mass (700kg wet mass) lander will achieve a full degree of success if it is able to land within a 100-square-meter target using its vision-based navigation system.

The target landing site for SLIM is the SHIOLI crater near the Sea of Nectar, located at 13.3S, 25.2E. The lander is designed to operate until lunar sunset occurs.

Its payloads include the Multi-Band Spectral Camera (MBC), which will examine the composition of surrounding rocks, and a small probe called the Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2), which separates from the main spacecraft just before landing and performs photo imaging.

To satisfy the limited size of the vehicle to be [mounted] on SLIM, we had to downsize LEV-2. However, downsizing causes a decrease in running performance, said Hirano Daichi, one of the researchers involved with LEV-2, in a statement. In order to deal with this problem, we designed the vehicle to be a spherical object with expandable wheels and a stabilizer using the transforming technologies for toys.

Moreover, we adopted the robust and safe design technology for childrens toys, which reduced the number of components used in the vehicle as much as possible and increased its reliability, he added.

Peregrine takes flight soon

The next lander to launch and the last one scheduled to land in January is Astrobotics Peregrine lunar lander. Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket is set for 1:49 a.m. EST (0649 UTC) on Dec. 24. If needed, there are backup opportunities at 1:53 a.m. EST (0653 UTC) on Dec. 25 and 2:08 a.m. EST (0708 UTC) on Dec. 26.

The mission will launch the lander on a translunar injection.

We will be close to Earth, but on a trajectory that will more or less intersect with the Moons orbit. Its at that point, and this is within about an hour or so of launch, were going to separate from the launch vehicle and our lander and Astrobotics mission begins, said John Thornton, Astrobotic CEO, during a media teleconference on Nov. 29.

According to a Nov. 14 presentation by Dr. Joel Kearns, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration, the landing window for the Peregrine Mission-1 landing is at 3:30 a.m. EST (0830 am UTC) on Jan. 25.

Once they land, Thornton said Peregrine will operate for about 10 days at which point the Sun will set on that part of the Moon, after which he said it will likely become to cold to operate.

In time, we are developing capability to survive that night, but on these first missions, were really focused on the hard enough problem, which is landing on the Moon in the first place, he said.

As with the IM-1 mission, PM-1 will also host a slate of NASA payloads as a participant in the CLPS program. During the teleconference, Thornton said he mostly only thinks about the other companies trying to land on the Moon when asked about it by press, adding that many players are needed for the lunar economy to be a successful venture.

We need this industry to succeed. We need the CLPS program to succeed. That is the number one priority for us, Thornton said. Of course, there is some level of competition with our competitors, but at the end of the day, its really secondary. The most important is the industry and most important is landing success.

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Three robotic missions target Moon landings over one week in January Spaceflight Now - Spaceflight Now