Watching Nvidia’s latest announcements, I couldn’t help but feel that the world of manufacturing is entering an entirely new phase.
Until now, PDCA cycles in manufacturing could only happen in the physical world.
But that’s no longer the case. We’re entering a time when product development can be simulated in virtual environments—worlds that mirror our own—and those cycles are now run autonomously by AI.
It’s clear that Nvidia intends to make this mirror world its main battlefield.
With concepts like Omniverse and digital twins, the idea is simple: bring physical reality into a digital copy, migrate the entire industrial foundation into that alternative world, and build a new economy on top of Nvidia’s infrastructure.
In that world, prototypes and designs can be tested and iterated in real time, at extreme levels of precision.
Self-driving simulations, factory line optimization, structural analysis of buildings, drug discovery, medical research, education—it’s all happening virtually, without ever leaving the simulation.
The meaning of “making things” is starting to shift.
Before anything reaches the physical world, it will have gone through tens of thousands of iterations in the virtual one—refined, evaluated, and optimized by AI.
We’ve entered a phase where PDCA loops run at hyperspeed in the digital realm, and near-finished products are sent out into reality.
This isn’t just about CG or visualization.
It’s about structures that exist only in data, yet directly affect actions in the physical world.
The mirror world has reached the level of fidelity where it can now be deployed socially.
In this era, I believe Japan’s role becomes even more essential.
No matter how detailed the design, we still need somewhere that can realize it physically, with precision.
In a world where even the slightest error could be fatal, manufacturing accuracy and quality control become the decisive factors.
And that’s exactly where Japan excels.
Things born in simulation will descend into reality.
And the interface between the two—“manufacturing”—is only going to grow in significance.