Nikkei Reports on U.S. Physical AI Startup Working With Hitachi and Kajima

On November 13, 2026, the Nikkei published an article about a U.S. physical AI startup working with Hitachi and Kajima.

The materials provided confirm only that the Nikkei covered a U.S. startup working with Hitachi and Kajima. The article text was not included, so the company’s name, the nature of the collaboration, and the stage of its technology or business cannot be confirmed. It is therefore not possible to assess the company’s plans in Japan or its relationships with Hitachi and Kajima in detail; readers should consult the original article. Separately, our previous reports have covered Hitachi’s work with a German startup to develop the “brains” for AI robots for manufacturing lines, as well as reports of a physical AI joint venture with FANUC (Hitachi, German startup to develop ‘brains’ for AI robots for manufacturing lines, Hitachi and FANUC to launch physical AI joint venture from fiscal 2027). For Kajima, we have reported on the introduction of quadruped robots at construction sites (Nikkei reports Kajima’s introduction of quadruped robots). These reports point to different operating environments—manufacturing lines and construction sites—but the materials do not show how the U.S. startup is connected to any of these developments. The current article should therefore not be treated as part of the same business plan as the previously reported initiatives at Hitachi or Kajima. The links to those existing efforts can be assessed once the U.S. startup’s specific role is clear. At present, it is not possible to determine which stages—technology development, field deployment or manufacturing—the collaboration covers, or whether the startup’s relationships with the two companies are structured in the same way. Without confirmation of the company’s name or the terms and implementation of the agreements, details such as product destinations, deployment scale and data handling should not be inferred. The key is to review the article text or statements from the parties and distinguish reported claims from confirmed facts.