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Rakuten Group is expanding its AI team under the leadership of a Google veteran and is committed to building AI models with cost efficiency at its core. Ting Cai has been the head of artificial intelligence team at this e-commerce pioneer for three years, and his task is to create an AI system that can enhance the company's diversified business and support commercial transactions at the lowest cost. He currently manages a team of 1,000 people that has grown this year, and has a computational power pool composed of "thousands of" NVIDIA chips. Based in Tokyo, Rakuten is currently facing challenges in its mobile business and fierce competition in online shopping. In 2024, AI contributed 10.5 billion yen (approximately $67 million) in operating profit to the company, with a goal to double this number this year. Intelligent ad targeting and placement have increased the return on investment for Rakuten's online merchants, while AI-driven semantic search and personalized recommendations have increased user engagement and click-through rates.