Japanese SoftBank Group and OpenAI, the creator of the ChatGPT chatbot, have announced the establishment of a joint venture in Japan to develop and sell AI services to local companies, reports Interfax-Kazakhstan.
The joint venture, named SB OpenAI Japan, will be owned by OpenAI and the company being formed by SoftBank Group along with its telecommunications subsidiary (SoftBank Corp.).
According to SoftBank's announcement, OpenAI will provide support to the joint venture in the areas of AI research, technology, and development, while SoftBank Corp. will focus on the sales and scaling of technological solutions.
Additionally, SoftBank Group plans to spend $3 billion annually on utilizing OpenAI solutions within its own companies.
Last week, media reported that SoftBank Group is in talks to invest between $15 billion to $25 billion in OpenAI.
The companies are also planning a major project in AI infrastructure together with Oracle Corp. and the UAE's state investment company MGX. Earlier this month, four companies announced the formation of the joint venture Stargate, which aims to invest $500 billion over the next four years in building data centers in the U.S. for OpenAI.
Previously, OpenAI stated that it has data indicating that its models are being used by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek to train its own. Meanwhile, American Nvidia Corp. considers the new R1 model from DeepSeek to be an excellent AI development. DeepSeek utilized "trimmed" versions of Nvidia chips for the Chinese market due to American export restrictions in its creation.