As malicious actors increasingly use AI to automate and scale cyberattacks, the threats facing systems that support critical infrastructure have become more severe than ever. And, as cyberattack methods get increasingly sophisticated and automated, vulnerabilities can be exploited to launch attacks that may result in system outages, data breaches and service interruptions, posing substantial risks to society at large.
Recognizing that Japan also faces the looming threat of sophisticated cyberattacks, on June 16, 2026, SoftBank Group Corp., SoftBank Corp., SB OAI Japan GK and OpenAI Group PBC held a special event for enterprise customers in Tokyo to unveil a new solution to help counter this threat.
Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., first took the stage to address an audience of approximately 200 clients from 150 of Japan’s leading companies.
“Our duty is to defend Japan’s critical infrastructure.” — Masayoshi Son
Stressing that the SoftBank Group has a duty to defend Japan’s critical infrastructure, Son unveiled "Patching as a Service," a solution designed to counter sophisticated cyberattacks. Combining OpenAI's technologies provided by SB OAI Japan with SoftBank Corp.'s operational knowhow, Patching as a Service supports clients with vulnerability assessments through remediation planning and implementation advisory.
“We’ll leverage expertise gained through our use of OpenAI's cybersecurity technologies.” — Junichi Miyakawa
SoftBank Corp. President & CEO Junichi Miyakawa, took the stage to describe how SoftBank Corp. carried out a large-scale internal vulnerability assessment across its internal systems using OpenAI's cybersecurity technologies.
He noted that SoftBank operates about 1,800 systems, and that the security assessments were carried out on approximately 700 systems for which source code is managed internally. The assessments uncovered 10,500 vulnerabilities, of which approximately 4,000 were found to be serious enough to require prioritized remediation within a short time frame.
Miyakawa called on companies responsible for supporting Japan’s critical infrastructure to act swiftly, stressing the rapid evolution of AI models in the cybersecurity domain. He also noted SoftBank Corp. will utilize its practical experience gained through the use of OpenAI's cybersecurity technologies with the rollout of Patching as a Service.
“We hope to help defenders move faster, and strengthen resilience.” — Sam Altman
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, voiced his support for the new collaboration by way of video message, noting that cybersecurity is going to be one of the most important applications of advanced AI.
“Software is becoming more complex, and AI can help find serious vulnerabilities, understand which risks matter most, and fix them before they cause harm,” he said. “We want our models’ frontier cyber capabilities to help organizations patch systems and solve their most difficult security problems, not just identify vulnerabilities.”
“Japan is an important country for this work. Its critical infrastructure, financial institutions, enterprises and technology ecosystem matter not only to Japan, but to the world,” he added.
“SoftBank has been an exceptional partner in coordinating and distributing the benefits of AI in large, complex environments. Together with SoftBank and SB OAI Japan, we hope to help defenders move faster, strengthen resilience and make the software people rely on safer.”
(Posted on June 18, 2026)
by SoftBank News Editors
