Japan Moves To Ease Tensions With China Over Taiwan

Nov 18, 2025 -- Today’s top stories: Japan Moves To Ease Tensions With China Over Taiwan, Japan’s Sakana AI Becomes Nation’s Most Valuable Unicorn, and PowerLattice Lands Backing for 50% Power-Saving Chiplet.

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By CommonWealth Magazine
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2025-11-18

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Japan Attempts to Cool Tensions with China as Diplomatic Spat over Taiwan Continues

Japan has sent a senior government official to Beijing to try and ease tensions with China.

The diplomatic spat continues to grow after comments by Japan's Prime Minister that suggested the country could take military action if Taiwan was attacked by China.

The conflict pits an increasingly confident Beijing under Chinese leader Xi Jinping against the hawkish Ms. Takaichi, who is a self-proclaimed friend of Taiwan and who has championed a buildup of Japan's defense forces in response to China's massive, Decades-Long military expansion.

The spat is also fueled by deep historical animosity between the two Asian powers.

The conflict is taking an economic toll, after Beijing issued a warning against travelling to its Eastern neighbor, a message they have doubled down on.

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Sakana AI Becomes Japan’s Most Valuable Unicorn, raises Series B at $2.65B valuation

Japanese startup Sakana ai has raised approximately JPY20 billion ($2.635Bn) in a funding round, marking a record for an unlisted Japanese start-up.

The new funds will be allocated to developing Sakana AI's proprietary large language model (LLM), which incorporates the intricacies of the Japanese language and culture to be used by domestic industries. To date, the startup has partnered with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) and Daiwa Securities group, among others.

MUFG and Daiwa securities have agreed to fund Sakana AI with an upper limit set at billions of JPY to develop a specialised AI for Finance. Going forward, Sakana AI will expand to other critical industries, such as defense and manufacturing.

The company projects it will make a profit next year.

CEO David Ha co-founded Sakana AI in 2023 after leaving Google.

The startup distinguishes itself with efficient AI models formed by integrating multiple LLMs.

Sakana AI made a breakthrough this year when it developed an approach for the AI to rapidly self-improve.

Sakana AI makes affordable Generative AI models that work well with small datasets and are optimised for the Japanese language and culture.

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PowerLattice Attracts Investment from Ex-Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger for Its Power-Saving Chiplet

Powerlattice, a startup founded by electrical engineers from Qualcomm, Nuvia, and Intel in 2023, claims to have developed a groundbreaking approach that reduces the power needs of computer chips by more than 50%.

The startup's Tech sounds simple in concept: a tiny power delivery Chiplet that's designed to bring power closer to the processor, significantly minimizing energy loss. Two years in, Powerlattice has already achieved its first key milestone: its first batch of Chiplets is being produced by TSMC, in partnership with an unnamed manufacturer that is testing the startup's functionality. Beyond its initial customer, the startup plans to make its product available for testing by other customers in the first half of 2026.

The trials should prove instructive, given that Powerlattice's potential customer set includes major chip manufacturers Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD, as well as specialized AI chip developers, such as Cerberus, Grok, and playground-backed startups D-Matrix and Nextsilicon.

Powerlattice emerged from stealth with a $25 million series A funding round led by Playground Global and Celesta Capital, bringing its total funding to $31 million.

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