Rakuten AI 3.0 Now Available, Japan's Largest High-Performance AI Model Developed as Part of the GENIAC Project

Rakuten Group, Inc. released its latest Japanese large language model, Rakuten AI 3.0, on March 17, 2026. The model was developed as part of the Generative AI Accelerator Challenge project promoted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. Unveiled in December 2025 and now fine-tuned, Rakuten AI 3.0 is described as Japan's largest high-performance AI model. It is intended to support companies and professionals who develop AI applications. The model is available at no cost under the Apache 2.0 license from the official Rakuten Group repository on Hugging Face. It is optimized for the Japanese language and performs well on writing, code generation, document analysis and extraction. Rakuten AI 3.0 achieves higher accuracy than the company's earlier models. Rakuten was selected in July 2025 for the third term of the GENIAC project. The project provided part of the training cost and computing resources needed for the model's development. Ting Cai, Chief AI and Data Officer of Rakuten Group, commented that Rakuten is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-efficient models that empower businesses and users. He said Rakuten AI 3.0 combines data, engineering and innovative architecture at scale. By sharing open models, the company aims to accelerate AI development in Japan and work with the ministry to foster a collaborative AI development community.