Kawasaki Heavy Industries Opens Physical AI Center In Silicon Valley

Congratulatory video messages were sent by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and professor of surgery at the University of Strasbourg, France, Dr. Jacques Marescaux.

Huang foresees“a new generation of intelligent machines” using Nvidia for AI training and simulation, and robot control:“An Nvidia Jetson would be the computer to run the AI in your robotic systems... The technology created in this lab will reach across Kawasaki's entire product line-up.”

Marescaux, who is founder and president of the Research Institute against Digestive Cancer (IRCAD ) in Strasbourg, France, stated that“Today, the development of AI is fantastic in surgery...[and] we know that within the next 10 or perhaps 15 years, the majority of procedures will be performed with a robot.”

Marescaux achieved international renown in 2001, when he led the team of surgeons that performed the first successful trans-Atlantic telesurgery, removing the gallbladder from a patient in Strasbourg with robot arms controlled from New York via a high-speed fiber optic link.

Based within the University Hospital of Strasbourg, IRCAD has eight“mirror institutes”, in Taiwan, China, India, Rwanda, Lebanon, the US, and two in Brazil. These are operationally independent affiliates aligned with IRCAD Strasbourg. The idea is to allow surgeons from around the world to acquire best practices in minimally invasive surgery.

The operations of KHI itself encompass aerospace, shipbuilding, power generation, plant engineering, industrial machinery, robotics and motorcycles. It possesses an extensive range of manufacturing expertise and data that it can bring to the Physical AI Center.

Kawasaki Robotics, a division of KHI, makes general-purpose industrial robots, collaborative robots, and specialized robotic systems.

The latter include silicon wafer handling and transfer robots used in semiconductor fabs, the hinotori (Firebird) surgery support robot, and a four-legged mobility robot. Hinotori was developed by Medicaroid, a joint venture between KHI and Sysmex, a Japanese medical diagnostics company.

The Kawasaki Physical AI Center will also work with KHI's R&D centers in Japan and Europe. KHI's first overseas R&D center, the Kawasaki Innovation Centre Europe SAS began operations at IRCAD in Strasbourg in March 2026.