SoftBank and OpenAI have strengthened their AI collaboration by forming a 50-50 joint venture called SB OpenAI Japan, reports AP.

At an event in Tokyo, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman discussed their partnership and encouraged Japanese businesses to get involved.

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Son, holding a blue crystal ball as a symbolic gesture, explained that the AI service "Cristal" could be used by businesses for tasks like planning, marketing, email management, and analysing old source codes.

Initially, Cristal will be implemented across SoftBank's own companies, including Arm, a semiconductor and software firm, and PayPay, a digital payment service. SoftBank has committed to investing $3 billion annually to integrate Cristal into its operations.

“This will bring super-intelligence to the company. I’m thrilled,” Son shared with reporters and event attendees at the Transforming Business through AI conference.

Altman discussed the new “deep research” feature, which allows ChatGPT to perform more complex tasks, such as generating reports by browsing the web and sourcing information much faster than a human could.

The deep research feature will be available in Japanese for the Japanese market.

“This partnership with SoftBank will fast-track our mission to deliver transformative AI to some of the world’s most influential companies, beginning with Japan,” Altman stated.

In addition to their joint venture, SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle are part of the Stargate project, backed by President Donald Trump, which aims to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure within the United States.

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Son mentioned that the Stargate project would expand into Japan and other countries.

The technology sector has been unsettled by the recent announcement from the Chinese company DeepSeek, which claims to have developed highly intelligent yet cost-effective AI.