On February 3, 2025, OpenAI, Inc., SoftBank Group Corp., Arm and SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) hosted a special event in Tokyo for enterprises based in Japan. Attended by top business leaders and the press, the session featured OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son, Arm CEO Rene Haas and SoftBank Corp.’s President & CEO Junichi Miyakawa as speakers. They announced a partnership that sees the companies developing and marketing an Advanced Enterprise AI called “Cristal intelligence” and a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank Group Corp. and SoftBank Corp. called “SB OpenAI Japan.”
Following opening remarkings from Junichi Miyakawa, Masayoshi Son noted, “Here today we have executives from companies that account for approximately 50% of Japan's GDP. I’m very pleased to announce we officially agreed to launch the world's most advanced AI for enterprises from Japan."
Transforming industry with “Cristal intelligence”
OpenAI launched AI models capable of reasoning in 2024 with their o1-series, and in 2025, these models will evolve into agents – AIs capable of doing work and executing tasks. AI agents for knowledge work will automate tasks such as generating financial reports, drafting documents, and managing customer inquiries to help professionals to focus on creativity and strategic decision-making.
Cristal intelligence is an Advanced Enterprise AI that will securely integrate the systems and data of individual enterprises in a way that is customized specifically for each company. With Cristal intelligence, AI agents will lay the groundwork for even more advanced systems that can learn and adapt to any enterprise's needs.
Cristal intelligence will be deployed across the entire SoftBank Group, including SoftBank Corp. Internally, SoftBank Corp. plans to automate over 100 million of its workflows by using the service, and while providing data and additional training in a secure manner, will aim to boost efficiency and create new business opportunities within its ecosystem.
Joint venture will help enterprises transform their businesses
A new joint venture, SB OpenAI Japan, will serve as a springboard to introduce AI agents tailored to the unique needs of Japanese enterprises. It will be 50% owned by OpenAI and 50% by a company established by SoftBank Group Corp. and SoftBank Corp., and SB OpenAI Japan will be consolidated to SoftBank Corp.
SB OpenAI Japan will market Cristal intelligence exclusively to major companies based in Japan, and help clients fine-tune and train their own data in secure environments while building AI agents that are fully integrated with their own IT systems. By having all of their tasks and workflows automated and autonomized, enterprise customers will be able to transform their businesses and services, creating new value.
OpenAI will provide its advanced AI research, technology and engineering support to SB OpenAI Japan, while SoftBank Corp. will second its sales staff and engineers to support the joint venture with its extensive Japan-based network, operational expertise and business insights.
Enterprise AI Agents to yield dramatic productivity gains
In a fireside chat between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Masayoshi Son, Altman explained the power of Enterprise AI Agents. “There will be generic agents and they can do powerful things. But what you might want for your company is an agent that can act with as much context, information and power as an employee at the company would have. So you need to have it connected to all the systems. You need to give it the knowledge base. It needs access to the code. It needs to understand how the company works. That will take a lot of customization work for each company, but think about what can happen when you have it,” he said.
Altman continued, “If someone builds this and integrates it into SoftBank, for example, and then there’s SoftBank and an imaginary competitor that hasn’t done this, SoftBank can now do so much more.”
Son said there will be a dramatic difference between companies with Enterprise AI Agents, and those without them. He added, “It’s like comparing a country with electricity to one without electricity. It’s a huge difference in productivity.”
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More info |
Press Release (OpenAI and SoftBank Group Partner to Develop and Market Advanced Enterprise AI) Presentation Material (PDF: 4.30MB/17 pages) [Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO, SoftBank Group Corp.] |
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(Posted on February 7, 2024)
by SoftBank News Editors
