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DealFrontierWorkJapanConfirmed

SoftBank and OpenAI form SB OpenAI Japan to sell ‘Cristal intelligence’ to Japanese firms

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Source: SoftBank Group

SoftBank Group and OpenAI announced on 3 February 2025 a joint venture, SB OpenAI Japan, owned 50:50 by OpenAI and a SoftBank company, to sell an enterprise AI product called Cristal intelligence exclusively to large Japanese companies. SoftBank Group said it would spend $3 billion a year deploying OpenAI products across its companies, and SoftBank Corp. said it plans to automate more than 100 million workflows.

Why it matters

Large Japanese companies got a local sales and integration channel for OpenAI models, backed by SoftBank’s own $3 billion yearly spend as the reference customer.

When
3 Feb 2025
ID
WTA-N-2025-0079
Where
Japan
Who
SoftBank Group, SoftBank Corp., OpenAI, Arm

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from SoftBank Group. Checked against the source on 9 Oct 2026.

Read the original at SoftBank Group

Source copy: download the page as saved on 18 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Next stop on this Storyline: Led toSoftBank agrees to invest up to $40bn in OpenAI at a $260bn pre-money valuation

Cite this story

WTA-N-2025-0079: “SoftBank and OpenAI form SB OpenAI Japan to sell ‘Cristal intelligence’ to Japanese firms.” wheresthe.ai, 3 Feb 2025. https://wheresthe.ai/d/jp-softbank-openai-sb-openai-japan-2025-02/ (source: SoftBank Group).

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