Japan says progress made on $550B pact, with AI and chips weighing heavily on the next round

Japan’s trade minister said discussions on AI and semiconductors will carry very significant weight in the third tranche of its $550B US investment pact, after two rounds went to energy and minerals. The EU’s own framework contains no comparable vehicle, and commits the bloc to buying at least $40B of US AI chips.

Japan’s trade minister said discussions on artificial intelligence and semiconductors will carry “very significant weight” in the next round of projects under its $550B investment pact with the United States. Ryosei Akazawa spoke in Washington on Friday, Bloomberg News reported.

Two rounds have been announced so far. The first put $36B into American oil, gas and mineral projects, and the second $73B into a nuclear project across Tennessee and Alabama plus gas power plants in Pennsylvania and Texas.

That is $109B of $550B committed after more than a year, and none of it in AI or chips.

The vehicle was the centre of last year’s tariff agreement, under which Washington set levies on Japanese goods at 15% and lowered the rate for cars. Both sides confirmed on Friday that no further tariffs would follow.

The structure is the part worth noticing. Japan negotiated a pot of money and a process for choosing what it buys, and its minister can now say in public where the next tranche will point.

Europe signed its own framework a month later, in August 2025, at the same 15% tariff ceiling.

The joint statement says European companies “are expected to invest an additional $600 billion across strategic sectors in the United States through 2028“.

That is a forecast about private companies rather than a fund. No European official selects those projects, and none can announce a tranche.

The same document says the EU “intends to purchase at least $40 billion worth of US AI chips for its computing centres“, alongside $750B of American energy through 2028.

So one side negotiated a mechanism to direct investment, and the other negotiated a commitment to buy.

TNW reported in July that Europe has opened bidding for up to seven AI gigafactories worth roughly EUR 30B, of which about EUR 10B would be public money. Only around EUR 1B of Brussels’ share is actually committed.

Each site is meant to hold at least 100,000 advanced AI chips. They will come from Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm, all American.

The European Parliament passed the trade deal anyway, and TNW wrote at the time that the tech fight was only starting. Japan is deciding where its money goes, and Europe has agreed what to spend it on.