SoftBank and OpenAI announced a major partnership on Monday that includes billions in annual spending and a new joint venture focused on the Japanese market.
The deal commits SoftBank to spending $3 billion per year on OpenAI technologies across its own operations and subsidiaries. The two companies will also create "SB OpenAI Japan," a joint venture that will exclusively distribute OpenAI's enterprise technology to major Japanese companies.
The agreement gives SoftBank and its subsidiaries access to ChatGPT Enterprise, the OpenAI API, and custom models. SoftBank is packaging these tools, along with the AI agent "Operator" and "Deep Research" tool, under its new "Cristal Intelligence" brand.
Masayoshi Son sees AGI in less than 10 years
During a Monday morning livestream, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son shared his thoughts on AI's future, suggesting artificial general intelligence (AGI) could emerge within the next decade. Son noted that large companies would likely be the first to adopt AGI due to the significant costs involved.
The partnership extends to Arm, the British chip designer SoftBank acquired in 2016, which plans to use OpenAI tools to enhance its productivity.
Recent reports suggest SoftBank is considering an investment of $15 to $25 billion in OpenAI, which would make it the largest investor alongside Microsoft. This investment would be part of a financing round worth up to $40 billion, potentially valuing OpenAI at $300 billion. Some of this funding may support the Stargate project.
