SoftBank joins hands with OpenAI to establish new joint venture in Japan AI transactions are increasingly “circular”

SoftBank Group announced the establishment of a joint venture in Japan with ChatGPT developer OpenAI, aiming to localize OpenAI’s enterprise-level artificial intelligence technology and sell it to Japanese companies. It is worth noting that the joint venture’s first customer is SoftBank itself.

According to reports, the new company is called SB OAI Japan, with SoftBank and OpenAI each holding 50% of the shares. The two parties will launch an enterprise AI solution called "Crystal intelligence", which is customized to improve the management and operational efficiency of Japanese companies. "Crystal intelligence aims to help organizations improve productivity and management efficiency by adopting advanced AI tools. The solution combines OpenAI's enterprise services and SB OAI Japan localized implementation and support." SoftBank said in a statement.

SoftBank Group stated that all its employees are actively using AI for daily work, and 2.5 million customized ChatGPT instances have been created for internal business. The group will apply the solutions developed by the joint venture to its various businesses, verify its effect on product research and development and corporate transformation, and transfer experience and expertise to other Japanese companies through SB OAI Japan.

This cooperation comes at a time when the market is concerned about the AI ​​investment boom and high corporate valuations. Analysts point out that the huge amount of money invested in AI development today is similar to the Internet "bubble" phenomenon in the early 21st century. Related companies quickly achieved high valuations, but the actual returns are still unclear.