Sakana AI

Sakana AI's main research fields are evolution and collective intelligence of AI. The company's name is derived from the Japanese word for fish. This represents the idea of a school of fish coming together and forming a coherent entity from simple rules, which is an analogy for collective intelligence.^[2]

The company was founded by David Ha, Llion Jones and Ren Ito. Llion Jones co-authored the famous paper "Attention Is All You Need" when he was working for Google in 2017. The company raised $30M in its seed funding round from Lux Capital and Khosla Ventures.^[3] The company raised approximately $200M from companies such as Mitsubishi UFJ, SMBC, Mizuho, Itochu, KDDI, Nomura and Nvidia in its series A funding round in 2024.^[4]

In January 2024, Sakana AI developed a method to build new AI models by 'breeding' multiple existing models, which it sees as a means to democratise AI development, as this process does not require large computational resources.^[5] Sakana AI is also developing a model called the AI Scientist, which automates the entire process of scientific research.^[6] The Nikkei estimated the company's value at 19 billion yen in 2024.^[7] As of late 2025, Tokyo-based Sakana AI is valued at approximately $2.6 billion to $2.65 billion (¥400 billion), cementing its position as one of Japan's most valuable AI startups. This valuation follows a ¥20 billion ($135 million) Series B funding round announced in November 2025, which saw participation from major investors including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Klux Capital, and In-Q-Tel.^[8]

• Swimmy
• Collective intelligence