TheTechno Optimist.

Sakana AI—Sakana AI raises ¥20B ($135M) Series B at a $2.65B valuationThe AI ScientistSakana AI—The AI Scientist is published in Nature, with evidence that its papers improve as base models improve

Sakana AI

AI Scientist, Japanese enterprise AI

JP$2.6B privateest. 2023sakana.ai (opens sakana.ai)Checked 11 Oct

The brief

Analyst view
  • Its AI Scientist paper ran in Nature in March 2026, after one of its fully AI-written papers passed review at an ICLR 2025 workshop.
  • Raised ¥20B ($135M) in a November 2025 Series B at a $2.65B post-money valuation; about $379M raised in total.
  • Paying work comes from banks (MUFG, SMBC, Daiwa Securities) and from Japan's defence ministry and its research agency.

Technical approach

As reported
Research

Automating the research loop

The AI Scientist chains language models through idea, code, experiment and write-up, so a full study runs without a human in the loop.

Nature-inspired

Evolution and collective behaviour

Instead of only training ever bigger models, it combines and evolves existing models and agents, borrowing ideas from natural selection.

Enterprise

AI built for Japanese clients

It tailors models and multi-agent tools to Japanese language and to specific jobs such as lending reviews, wealth advice and intelligence analysis.

Primer