SoftBank, OpenAI to Develop Cristal Intelligence – an Advanced Enterprise AI

SoftBank Group, a Japanese investment firm, announced a partnership to “develop and market” an enterprise AI solution called ‘Cristal intelligence’. 

“Cristal intelligence will securely integrate the systems and data of individual enterprises in a way that is customized specifically for each company,” an announcement from SoftBank stated. 

SoftBank also revealed that they will spend $3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across all the companies in their group, which includes the chip design giant Arm. 

“SoftBank Corp. plans to automate over 100 million workflows by using Cristal intelligence, while providing data and additional training in a secure manner,” read the report. They also revealed Arm will utilise Cristal intelligence to “drive innovation and boost productivity in the company”. 

The companies also announced the establishment of a joint venture called SB OpenAI Japan, which is said to accelerate the deployment and marketing of Cristal intelligence. The joint venture will be “owned fifty-fifty by OpenAI and a company established by SoftBank Group Corp”.

This joint venture is said to build a secure environment for additional training and fine-tuning Cristal intelligence data. 

In this venture, OpenAI will contribute to AI research, technology and engineering, while SoftBank will provide its sales staff, operational expertise, and business insights. Furthermore, Arm’s compute platform will provide the necessary computational demands to support and deploy AI agents. 

“SoftBank Group is fully committed to leveraging the new products across our entire organisation and utilise our great partnership with OpenAI to drive the AI revolution forward,” said Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank and The Stargate Project chairman. 

Earlier, it was reported that SoftBank was in discussions to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI, which would make it the startup’s largest backer. 

In November last year, OpenAI allowed employees to sell $1.5 billion in shares to SoftBank, as per reports. A CNBC report stated that Son has been pushing for a larger stake in OpenAI after having previously invested in The Stargate Project. 

The Stargate Project, is a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative backed by tech titans such as Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Son, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

An initial investment of $100 billion will be deployed immediately. This initiative is expected to reinforce US leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and contribute to global economic growth. The project focuses on fortifying national security measures for the US and its global partners.

The announcement comes as a part of Altman’s world tour, where he is travelling to Japan, India, Dubai, South Korea, France and Germany to enhance the company’s global partnerships. In Japan, OpenAI also announced a new feature called deep research for ChatGPT Pro Users, which conducts “multi-step research” from sources available on the internet to curate a comprehensive report “at the level of a research analyst”.