SoftBank Group has announced a joint venture with OpenAI to offer artificial intelligence services to corporate customers in Japan. The venture, named SB OpenAI Japan, will be owned by OpenAI and a company established by SoftBank and its domestic telecoms arm.
According to CEO Masayoshi Son, the Japanese investment giant will pay $3 billion annually to use OpenAI’s technology across SoftBank group companies. This move reflects Son’s reemergence as an investment force after a period of retrenchment sparked by the falling value of SoftBank’s tech portfolio.
SoftBank has also committed to investing $15 billion to $25 billion in OpenAI, according to Reuters reports. The company is also partnering with Oracle on Stargate, a joint venture aimed at building AI capacity in the US.
The partnership comes amid growing concerns about the viability of AI technology, with China’s DeepSeek model appearing to rival capabilities of leading US companies. CEO Sam Altman stated that “the world is going to just need so much compute” to achieve this goal.
Son has a long history of partnering with tech firms in the US, including bringing the iPhone to Japan in 2008. He and Altman met with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Monday, further solidifying the partnership.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/softbank-openai-set-up-ai-japan-joint-venture-2025-02-03