Geodesic Forum 2026: Two Megatrends Converge

At Geodesic Forum 2026, we experienced the convergence of two tectonic global trends: the rapid maturity of enterprise AI technologies and the clear emergence of Japan as the most important economic and geopolitical force in the Asia Pacific region. Neither of these two trends should surprise anyone, but what happens when they come together at this pivotal time when both are accelerating? This is what we  witnessed in Tokyo between February 17th-19th at our annual Forum, which was attended by 17 “Silicon Valley” companies and over 1,000 Japanese attendees from almost 100 Japanese companies.  

AI Observations: 2025 vs 2026 – Horizontal AI vs Vertical AI

Compared to last year’s Forum which showcased horizontal applications for broad enterprise AI enablement, including Databricks (data), Glean (enterprise search), and Workato (iPaaS & enterprise MCP), this years’ companies clearly highlighted recent traction gained by startups addressing deep workflows in specific verticals and core enabling technologies, including Roboflow (vision), Cartesia (voice), Netradyne (fleet management), Arena (hardware design), and Smack (national security).  

So while artificial general intelligence represented by the frontier models is still very much alive and well, and while horizontal applications will still form the foundation for AI deployment, startups with deep domain expertise seem to be driving the next phase of innovation and growth across the application and developer tooling layers of the AI stack.

The result of this deep drive into vertical AI will be two fold: 1) companies will accelerate AI adoption as targeted solutions mature and more directly address industry specific challenges and workflows (Netradyne, Arena, etc) and 2) enterprises themselves will create more and more sophisticated digital and AI applications as developer tooling further automates complex application development and delivery (Vercel, Harness, Roboflow, Cartesia, etc). These two together will finally accelerate the virtuous cycle of digital transformation Japan has long hoped for.

Japan: More Than Just Shohei and Yoshinobu

While baseball and ramen have put Japan back on the map for global consumers, Japan has quietly made an incredible economic and geopolitical comeback as well.  

It is true that Japan’s declining population and stagnant GDP dominate headlines, but what these headlines fail to capture is Japan’s multi-decade pivot upstream away from low margin consumer electronics markets and towards much more profitable and stable deep tech inputs (automotive microcontrollers, chemicals, energy infrastructure, industrial robots, etc). These markets are much less dynamic and slower growing than IT startups in the Valley, but they are highly profitable and much more difficult to disrupt. Moreover, with a focus on high end manufacturing, Japan is potentially positioned very well as conversations in Silicon Valley shift to the real world and physical AI.

Japan’s Geopolitical Resurgence

Geopolitically, Japan was largely invisible for much of the 2000s and 2010s. A reliable ally, Japan was nonetheless overshadowed by the rise of China, its economic might and the hope that economic integration would lead to geopolitical integration as well. 

Now that it is abundantly clear that China will continue to be a geopolitical foe, Japan’s presence in the region as a uniquely Asian Democracy and capitalist economy make it a strategic bulwark of regional peace and stability. All of this of course happening at a time when Japan is resurgent not only economically, but when there seems to be new political will to take on a bigger role militarily, led by their popular prime minister Sanae Takaichi. Under the previous regime (PM Kishida), Japan had already decided to double its defense budget which they are using to upgrade and expand their military. 

Surely interoperability with the US will be a priority and so for innovative defense tech, space, and other startups in adjacent industries willing to put in the work there certainly is a sizable opportunity to be explored.  

Forum: Where the Rise of AI and Japan’s Resurgence Converged

The rise of AI and a resurgent Japan combined to make the Forum a very special event this year. Of course we say that every year and every year it is true. But it seems both Japan and AI are turning a corner. Both have “crossed the chasm” as we say, and corporate Japan and Silicon Valley are moving to embrace one another in a way that we have not seen before. The work of course still needs to be done on both sides to realize the potential ahead, but now more than ever strong technical, economic and geopolitical trends are all converging to create stronger alignment than there has been in the past.  These forces were palpable in the energy we felt throughout the Forum. 

Geodesic Forum Main Programs

1. Tech Conference 2026 (February 17th): At our flagship event, 500 people gathered to hear from Geodesic’s founders as well as 10 Silicon Valley Startups.

Tech Conference Speakers: 

10 startups (represented by 9 CEOs) covering topics such as AI for real time voice to text and text to voice (Cartesia), AI for hardware and electronics design (Arena), AI for national defense (Smack), next generation space stations (VAST), and cyber security (Island), and others. It was an insightful view into what’s happening at the cutting edge of Silicon Valley innovation across sectors.

Tech Conference networking reception:  

It was so great reconnecting with old friends and making new ones as well at the networking reception! So many technical and business discussions happened at the Silicon Valley company tables as well.

2. One on one meetings (February 17th–18th):  while 1-on-1 meetings are always a staple of the Forum, this year we had more requests than ever. The final count of 1-on-1 meetings was 145 (between 55 Japanese companies.)

3. Developer Lab (February 18th): We held an event just for developers to dig in deep with 6 developer focused companies: Roboflow, Cartesia, Harness, Clickhouse, TinyFish, and Vercel. Three Japanese customers presented as well: Digital Garage (TinyFish), Nakashima (Roboflow), and Route06 (Vercel). This was our second Developer Lab, and it was great to see the energetic conversations happening at the demo booths as developer productivity continues to be a top priority for Japanese corporations and startups.

4. VIP Reception (with special guest Yoshiki): This year our VIP reception was held at Salesforce Tower Tokyo overlooking the Imperial Palace. We were honored to see so many of our friends from corporate Japan and the national and local governments.  The highlight this year was undoubtedly a visit from international rock star Yoshiki (a personal friend of Geodesic Founding partner John Roos) who moved us with his beautiful live musical performance. 

5. Alliance Fund and NFocus Fund participation: Our newly-launched Alliance Fund and NFocus Funds, focused largely on deep tech industries like semiconductors, space, robotics, and national defense, were also represented at Forum, giving additional breadth and depth to the event. The Alliance Fund team showcased Forum participants Smack and Vast, along with Portal Space and Planet, in its inaugural deep tech luncheon. Geodesic Alliance Fund investors Tom Gillespie and Rayfe Gaspar-Asaoka conducted dialogues with the companies’ leaders, exploring key dual-use issues for the national security and space sectors. Special remarks from senior representatives of both the U.S. and Japanese governments contributed to an afternoon of insights and networking.

6. Winning in Japan: As we do each year, we closed Geodesic Forum with our Winning in Japan session geared to help tech executives pull all of the learnings, experiences and new relationships from the previous two days into a coherent Japan entry and growth strategy for their companies. This year we had special guests Miki Tsusaka (President of Microsoft Japan), Hiro Kawanobe (Country Manager at Figma), Andrew Nimmer Founder and President of executive search firm Scale Insight, and Ed Ramsey of JETRO all join James Kondo (Senior Advisor to Geodesic) and myself and the Geodesic team in this lively conversation. 

Overall, Geodesic Forum 2026 was a packed and inspiring three days of meetings, conferences, hands-on labs, networking and non-stop learning. At Geodesic our mission has always been to help unlock the endless opportunities that exist between the global tech industry and Japan by providing a platform where key decision makers, thought leaders, and innovators from both sides of the Pacific can meet each other and explore opportunities for collaboration. Now in our 11th year of operations, our mission is more important than ever and we look forward to continuing to support all of the budding relationships that were newly formed at Forum.   

Here is a list of the Silicon Valley Companies that attended:

• Arena: AI for electronics and hardware development 
• Cartesia: real time voice AI
• Clickhouse: real time data warehouse 
• Distyl: AI native systems integration
• Exein: IoT security for embedded devices
• Harness: AI for DevOps
• Island: AI powered secure enterprise browser
• Modular: Unified AI inference platform
• Netradyne: AI fleet management and safety
• Parallel: Web search and research APIs for AI agents
• Roboflow: Computer vision tools for developers 
• Smack Technologies: Frontier Lab for National Security
• Tanium: Unified IT operations and security platform
• TinyFish: Enterprise search agents
• Treiner: Physical AI for industrial robotics
• Vast: Next generation space stations
• Vercel: The AI Cloud

A big thank you to each of these companies for investing their precious time to be with us in Japan and for helping to make Geodesic Forum 2026 such an unforgettable event, and thank you to everyone in our community who attended and participated.

Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!