What Is NTT Research?

Meet the Silicon Valley research group behind novel optical devices, next generation cryptography, a digital twin of the human heart, and understanding Artificial Intelligence.Author: Chris Shaw, NTT Research NTT Research, Inc. is NTT’s Silicon Valley based fundamental research organization. Launched in 2019 and now headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, it conducts long-term research across four areas: physics and informatics, cryptography and information security, medical and health informatics, and the physics of artificial intelligence.NTT Research is the Silicon Valley based fundamental research arm of NTT. NTT reports more than $90 billion in annual revenue, relationships with more than 75% of the Fortune Global 100, and approximately $3 billion in annual research and development investment. From its home in Sunnyvale, California, NTT Research conducts long-horizon scientific research across four labs.NTT Research opened in July 2019 with three founding labs and later added a fourth:The purpose of NTT Research is to do fundamental research, the kind measured in scientific breakthroughs that invent the future, and to carry it toward reality through the wider NTT group.NTT Research is built for the long term. A cryptographic method or a new model of the heart can take years to prove, and, backed by the NTT group, NTT Research gives that science the time and funding it needs to get there. This connection also gives the research a route from the lab into products and services across NTT’s global businesses.Each NTT Research lab works to answer a different fundamental question. The table below shows what each one asks, along with its signature project.The NTT Research Physics and Informatics (PHI) Lab, led by Tetsu Sogawa, asks how the physics of light can build a new kind of computer. Its signature project, the Coherent Ising Machine, uses light, instead of electricity, to solve hard optimization problems, the kind found in many applications including logistics and drug discovery. The NTT Research Physics and Informatics (PHI) Lab also develops thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic chips, a key technology for compact, energy-efficient communications and computing devices. As AI requires further scaling, performance and energy efficiency becomes critical.The NTT Research Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab, directed by Brent Waters, works on the mathematics that keeps information private. Its research areas include attribute-based encryption, which enables policy-based access to encrypted data, and post-quantum cryptography, designed to resist attacks from both classical and quantum computers. This work lets organizations use sensitive data while keeping it private. The NTT Research Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab develops cryptographic methods that give organizations finer-grained control over encrypted data and, in some cases, enable collaboration without exposing the underlying datasets.The NTT Research Medical and Health Informatics (MEI) Lab, led by Joe Alexander, brings computation to human health. Its signature project, the Cardiovascular Bio Digital Twin, aims to create patient-specific software models that could help care teams compare treatments and predict outcomes before applying them in clinical care. That points medicine toward precision care, matching treatment to the individual patient.The NTT Research Physics of Artificial Intelligence (PAI) Lab, led by Hidenori Tanaka, asks how and why AI behaves the way it does. It studies modern AI systems, including multi-agent systems, as objects of science, and borrows tools from physics to explain what is happening inside of the AI backbox.NTT Research, NTT DATA, Inc., and NTT, Inc. are related but distinct organizations. NTT, Inc., renamed from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in July 2025, is the global parent. NTT DATA, Inc. runs the group’s IT services and consulting business outside Japan. NTT Research focuses on fundamental scientific research from Silicon Valley, alongside NTT R&D, the group’s research organization in Japan. The NTT group includes more companies than the four below. These four come up most often alongside NTT Research.Scale Academy is NTT Research’s technology incubator, turning lab breakthroughs into products and services that enterprises can deploy. Its first product, SaltGrain, was launched in April 2026. SaltGrain is a data-centric security platform: it protects the data itself with persistent, fine-grained encryption and policy-based access controls that travel with the data wherever it goes. SaltGrain builds on NTT Research Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab research into attribute-based encryption. It binds access policies to the encrypted data and gives organizations fine-grained access control over who can view sensitive portions within a file. That reduces unauthorized exposure and complements the security controls a business already runs. This is a critical feature for the coming AI agent era, providing right access to the right AI agent . SaltGrain shows how NTT Research moves science into products: the NTT Research Cryptography and Information Security (CIS) Lab spent years on the mathematics of attribute-based encryption, and Scale Academy turned that work into a product enterprises can deploy today. To see SaltGrain in action, request a demo.NTT Research works on the science behind the next generation of computing, security, medicine, and AI. Subscribe to the NTT Research newsletter for new research, publications, and announcements. Join me at NTT Research’s Upgrade summit to meet the researchers and see their latest findings firsthand.NTT Research is the Silicon Valley based fundamental research arm of NTT. NTT reports more than $90 billion in annual revenue, relationships with more than 75% of the Fortune Global 100, and approximately $3 billion in annual research and development investment. Launched in 2019 and now headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, NTT Research conducts long-horizon scientific research across four areas: physics and informatics, cryptography and information security, medical and health informatics, and the physics of artificial intelligence.NTT Research is known for the signature work of its four labs: the Coherent Ising Machine in light-based computing, its attribute-based encryption lineage in cryptography, the Cardiovascular Bio Digital Twin in medical informatics, and foundational study of the physics of artificial intelligence.They are related but distinct. NTT, Inc., renamed from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in July 2025, is the global parent. NTT DATA, Inc. runs its IT services and consulting business outside Japan. NTT Research focuses on the group’s fundamental scientific research, based in Sunnyvale, California, and is not a division of NTT DATA, Inc.NTT Research is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. NTT Research launched in 2019 and runs its four research labs from Sunnyvale, close to the universities and technology companies of the San Francisco Bay Area.Like Google DeepMind and Microsoft Research, NTT Research conducts long-horizon research within a corporate setting. Their remits differ: DeepMind centers on AI and AI-enabled science; Microsoft Research spans fundamental science and technology; NTT Research works across physics, cryptography, medicine, and AI, with a commercialization path through the wider NTT Group.