Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based LLM developer founded last year by former Google researchers, is on the verge of becoming a unicorn in under a year. The company, which develops alternatives to transformer models, is raising approximately $100 million at a $1 billion valuation in a funding round led by NEA, Khosla Ventures, and Lux Capital. This rapid ascent to unicorn status highlights the growing risk appetite within Japan's technology and startup ecosystem, supported by local limited partners and the government.
