Japan's Sakana AI plans to IPO as early as fall 2027

Japanese AI lab Sakana AI plans to go public as early as fall 2027, and has hired Goldman Sachs as its IPO advisor. It could become the first generative AI developer in Japan to list, and one of the biggest startup IPOs in the country's history. Founded in 2023, Sakana AI focuses on sovereign AI and has launched a series of routing models. In November 2025, it closed a Series B round at a 400 billion yen valuation. The IPO money will fund model development, hiring, and marketing. On the product side, Sakana is building its own Sawara model series, with smaller versions planned for spring 2027 and larger ones to follow.