Tech investor SoftBank has agreed to spend a reported $3 billion annually to use OpenAI's technology across its businesses.
According to US media, the two companies have also launched a joint venture, SB OpenAI Japan, which will market OpenAI’s enterprise tools exclusively to major Japanese firms.
SoftBank and its subsidiaries will gain access to OpenAI’s AI tools, including ChatGPT Enterprise, API services, and the upcoming Deep Research feature, which performs complex web-based analysis.
These tools will be branded under SoftBank’s Cristal Intelligence suite. Arm, the British chip designer owned by SoftBank, will also use OpenAI’s AI tools to improve efficiency.
The announcement comes as SoftBank, led by Masayoshi Son, is reportedly in talks to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI, which could make it the company’s largest investor, surpassing Microsoft.