SoftBank just launched a 50-50 joint venture with OpenAI to sell localized AI enterprise solutions in Japan - with SoftBank itself as the first customer. The move highlights the increasingly circular nature of AI investments, where major backers become customers of their own portfolio companies.
The AI investment world just got even more circular. SoftBank, which is pouring tens of billions into OpenAI while committing dozens more to AI infrastructure, just launched a joint venture with the ChatGPT maker that will sell AI solutions to Japanese companies. The twist? SoftBank itself will be the first customer.
Called SB OAI Japan, the 50-50 joint venture will offer what the companies are calling 'Crystal intelligence' - a packaged enterprise AI solution targeted at corporate management and operations in Japan. It's essentially OpenAI's enterprise offerings wrapped in local implementation and support, according to a SoftBank statement.
'Crystal intelligence is designed to help organizations enhance productivity and management efficiency through the adoption of advanced AI tools,' SoftBank said. The solution combines OpenAI's enterprise offerings with localized implementation and support provided through the new joint venture.
But here's where it gets interesting - SoftBank plans to use its own businesses as a testing ground before selling to others. The conglomerate will deploy the joint venture's solutions across its various businesses, validate their effectiveness for product development and 'business transformation,' then pass those insights back to other companies through SB OAI Japan.
SoftBank is already deep in the AI game internally. The company says all its employees are 'actively utilizing AI in their daily operations' and has created 2.5 million custom ChatGPT instances for internal use. That's a massive scale that few companies can match, making SoftBank both a significant customer and validator for OpenAI's enterprise push.
The timing reflects SoftBank's broader AI investment strategy. The conglomerate is investing tens of billions into OpenAI while simultaneously committing dozens more to build AI data centers and infrastructure. Now it's creating a revenue stream from those same investments.
