"A memorandum of understanding has just been formally signed between Softbank and OpenAI to establish a 50-50 joint venture," SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son said as he outlined the services of a new AI product called Cristal.

A joint statement by the firms said Japanese tech investor SoftBank would "spend $3 billion US annually to deploy OpenAI's solutions across its group companies".

At a meeting of around 500 Japanese businesses, the flamboyant Son -- holding a purple crystal ball -- said Cristal would use AI to provide customised support to companies by crunching system data, reports, emails and meetings in real-time.

The joint venture "will serve as a springboard for introducing AI agents tailored to the unique needs of Japanese enterprises while setting a model for global adoption", the statement said.

SoftBank and OpenAI are already working together on the Stargate drive announced in January by US President Donald Trump to invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

The announcement comes after Chinese AI newcomer DeepSeek stunned US developers with its high performance and supposed low cost.

Earlier on Monday, OpenAI unveiled a new tool for its hugely popular generative AI chatbot ChatGPT called "deep research" which "accomplishes in tens of minutes what would take a human many hours".

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SOFTBANK GROUP