Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG)
MUFG Bank, Ltd. (MUFG Bank)MUFG Innovation Partners Co., Ltd (MUIP)

MUFG to Invest in Sakana AI
Tokyo, September 17, 2024 -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (“MUFG”) and its
consolidated subsidiary, MUFG Bank, Ltd., along with MUFG Innovation Partners Co.,
Ltd., today announced that they have entered into an investment agreement with
Sakana AI K.K. (“Sakana AI”), an AI R&D company. As a result of this agreement,
MUFG has become Sakana AI’s largest Japanese corporate investor.
Founded in July 2023, in about a year Sakana AI achieved unicorn status with avaluation exceeding one billion dollars. The company is led by David Ha, who has
overseen complex systems and autonomous systems research as the head of Google
Brain’s research team in Japan; Llion Jones, one of the authors of the seminal paper“Attention Is All You Need,” which catalyzed the development of the “Transformer” AImodel, leading to the explosive proliferation of current generative AI; and Ren Ito, who
has been involved in diplomacy and global business operations at Japan’s Ministry ofForeign Affairs and Mercari, Inc. Sakana AI boasts top-tier global talent and has
achieved innovative milestones such as “Evolutionary Model Merge,” a method for
merging multiple AI models, and “The AI Scientist,” the first comprehensive system forfully automatic scientific discovery, enabling foundation models to perform research
independently. These groundbreaking initiatives are expected to further advance AI
development from multiple perspectives.
In its Medium-term Business Plan, which commenced in April 2024, MUFG has
committed to enhancing its AI capabilities and data infrastructure to achieve datadriven management as well as to improve productivity and customer value. Thiscommitment falls under the theme “Accelerate Transformation & Innovation,” which isone of the three pillars of the plan. By leveraging Sakana AI’s advanced technologicalcapabilities and innovative model development methods, MUFG aims to further elevate
its AI strategy.
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About MUFG
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) is one of the world’s leading financialgroups. Headquartered in Tokyo and with over 360 years of history, MUFG has a globalnetwork with approximately 2,000 locations in more than 40 countries. The Group has
about 120,000 employees and offers services including commercial banking, trustbanking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing.
The Group aims to “be the world’s most trusted financial group” through close
collaboration among our operating companies and flexibly respond to all of the financial
needs of our customers, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth
for a better world. MUFG’s shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York stock
exchanges. For more information, visit https://www.mufg.jp/english.
About Sakana AI
Founded in July 2023 and based in Tokyo, Sakana AI K.K. (Sakana AI), is a rapidly
growing AI R&D company, led by David Ha, Llion Jones, and Ren Ito. Sakana AI has
already achieved significant and innovative milestones, including “Evolutionary ModelMerge,” a method for merging multiple AI models, and “The AI Scientist,” the firstcomprehensive system for fully automatic scientific discovery, enabling foundation
models to perform research independently.
For more information, visit https://sakana.ai/blog/.