Japan is set to join the United States’ flagship “Genesis Mission,” an initiative designed to accelerate scientific discovery and technological innovation through artificial intelligence and supercomputing, becoming the program’s first international partner.

According to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, both governments plan to invest $500 million each over the next five years, bringing the total funding commitment to $1 billion. The initiative was launched by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump in November to advance cutting-edge scientific research.

A letter of intent was signed on Thursday at the U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington by representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy and Japan’s ministries of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Economy, Trade and Industry.

Dario Gil, U.S. Under Secretary for Science and head of the Genesis Mission, described the agreement as a pivotal moment for the next era of scientific advancement.

Under the partnership, U.S. national laboratories will collaborate with leading Japanese research institutions, including the RIKEN research institute and the National Institute for Materials Science. The joint effort will focus on breakthrough research in areas such as quantum information science, fusion energy, and biotechnology.

The two countries also plan to explore frameworks for safeguarding critical biological databases and protecting intellectual property generated through collaborative research.

Yasuyoshi Kakita, Deputy Director-General for Policy Coordination at Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, said Japan possesses extensive research data and scientific resources accumulated through years of development. He expressed hope that combining these assets with emerging AI technologies developed in the United States would further strengthen Japan’s research and innovation capabilities.