By Min Jeong Lee
Publication Date: 2025-12-23 02:48:00
Rakuten Group is expanding its AI team led by a Google veteran and building models with a focus on cost efficiency.
Ting Cai has led the e-commerce pioneer’s artificial intelligence team for three years, tasked with developing AI systems that expand the company’s many business areas and help process commercial transactions at minimal cost. He leads a team that has grown to 1,000 this year and has a battery of “thousands” of Nvidia chips to work with.
Tokyo-based Rakuten is struggling with a difficult mobile business and constant competition in online shopping. Both could receive a significant boost through the effective use of new AI tools. However, the focus is on making this profitable from the start. This sets the company apart from other large technology companies.
