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Arm and SoftBank Invest $15.5 Million to Drive AI Collaboration Between Carnegie Mellon and Keio University
Arm and SoftBank invest $15.5M to support AI research collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and Keio Universities. Focus areas include multimodal learning, robotics, and AI for scientific discovery.
Arm and SoftBank Invest $15.5 Million to Propel AI Research with Carnegie Mellon and Keio Universities
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Arm, and SoftBank Group (SBG) have announced a $15.5 million contribution from Arm and SoftBank to support CMU’s partnership with Japan’s Keio University. This collaboration aims to accelerate AI advancements through a US-Japan research alliance launched last year.
The initiative pairs CMU with Keio University and the University of Washington with the University of Tsukuba, strengthening the international leadership of both countries in artificial intelligence. A broader consortium, including Amazon, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Arm, and SoftBank, pledged a total of $110 million to back these efforts.
Funding and Resources Supporting AI Innovation
Arm and SoftBank’s $15.5 million will enable CMU researchers to access advanced commercial AI tools and models, while also supporting fundamental research with transformative potential. Arm will provide its hardware and software intellectual property through its Academic Access program, allowing researchers to work directly with the company’s latest technologies.
This support extends to collaborative research projects, student internships, and capstone experiences between CMU and Keio. Additionally, SoftBank will establish the SoftBank Group–Arm Fellowship, which funds CMU Ph.D. students focusing on AI research and backs undergraduate summer programs and internships.
Focus Areas for Collaborative Research
Research teams at CMU and Keio will concentrate on four key areas:
- Multimodal and multilingual learning
- Embodied AI for robotics
- Autonomous AI symbiosis with humans
- Life sciences and AI for scientific discovery
Recent exchanges include Keio researchers visiting CMU in fall 2024, followed by CMU researchers traveling to Keio in spring 2025. One ongoing project in embodied AI is developing robotic systems that better understand their capabilities, enhancing task performance in home environments.
Other efforts aim to reduce hallucinations in large language models when processing images or multimodal data. Research on AI symbiosis explores nonverbal communication, robotic arm interactions, and social navigation. AI in scientific discovery will focus on experimentation, biomedical image analysis, lab automation, and molecular data interpretation.
Key Perspectives from Leadership
Martial Hebert, Dean of CMU’s School of Computer Science:
“Carnegie Mellon is thankful for the support of Arm and SoftBank Group Corp. to further the development of transformative technologies powered by artificial intelligence. AI is pushing scientific discovery in fields like robotics and biomedicine, helping researchers understand complex systems and predict outcomes with increased accuracy. The CMU and Keio partnership will unlock research potential across the globe. Together, with generous and expert industry backing, we will blaze the new path charted by pioneering breakthroughs made possible through AI.”
Khaled Benkrid, Senior Director, Education and Research, Arm:
“At Arm, we see the future of AI at the intersection of cutting-edge research, world-class engineering and practical application. Our partnership with the SoftBank Group and Carnegie Mellon University accelerates AI innovation while empowering the next generation. By uniting academia and industry, we’re not just advancing technology, we’re also investing in its future architects.”
Tim Mackey, Corporate Officer, CLO & GCO, Head of Legal Unit, SoftBank Group:
“AI’s true potential emerges at the nexus of diverse ideas, rigorous scholarship and strategic international alliances. Through our support for the Carnegie Mellon–Keio initiative, we seek not only to catalyze innovation but also to strengthen the foundational bonds between Japan and the U.S., building a robust pipeline of visionary AI talent prepared for global leadership.”
This partnership represents a significant step in fostering collaborative AI research across borders, combining academic excellence with industry expertise to address complex scientific and technological challenges.