New Delhi, July 16 -- On Wednesday night, Jensen Huang was in Tokyo's central Kanda district courting the little-known Japanese suppliers that underpin the AI supply chain.

The Nvidia Corp. chief executive officer swept into a cozy izakaya in the area popular for after-work drinks, turning a narrow lane known for grilled pork skewers and beer crates into a theater for the AI boom. Outside, a crowd pressed in with smartphones raised, hoping for a glimpse of the man they refer to as kawajan-san - Mr. Leather Jacket - on social media and whose chips have become central to the global AI race.

Inside sat the chiefs of Kioxia Holdings Corp., maker of advanced flash memory chips; Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., the world's leading provider of advanced...