SoftBank Group, the Japan-based investment holding company, and OpenAI, the US-based parent company of ChatGPT, have announced a joint venture in the name of SB OpenAI Japan. The announcement also mentions that the prospective joint venture will be owned by  OpenAI and a company established by SoftBank and its domestic telecoms arm. 

The core objective of the JV is to offer artificial intelligence services to corporate customers. Under this SoftBank will be paying $3 billion annually to use OpenAI's technology across SoftBank group companies. SottBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son further plans to invest around $15- 25 billion in the company. 

SoftBank: Premier Technology Facilitator 

Son's support for OpenAI signals his return as a major investment player after a period of retrenchment, driven by the decline in SoftBank's tech portfolio and several high-profile setbacks. He has a long track record of partnering with U.S. tech firms, notably bringing the iPhone to Japan through SoftBank in 2008.

Read about OpenAI's ChatGPT Gov at: ChatGPT Gov Unveiled: How It Differs from Standard GPT Models in Features, Accessibility, and More

SoftBank X OpenAI 

SoftBank has even pledged $15 billion to Stargate, a joint venture with OpenAI and Oracle aimed at expanding AI capacity in the U.S. The launch of Stargate last month marked Son’s second public appearance with Donald Trump since his election as president in November.

Read about OpenAI's recently launched Deep Research at: OpenAI’s “Deep Research”: Groundbreaking, but Why Slow at Generating Responses?

ChatGPT V DeepSeek 

This major expansion by OpenAI comes amid a deepening race between the Silicon Valley-based AI giants to take over DeepSeek R1, the recently launched Chinese AI model, into the global market. DeepSeek’s cost-effective pitch has left the Silicon Valley giants in a state of nervousness as it raised some pertinent questions about the giants seeking billion-dollar evaluations and equally huge investments too.