Softbank bets billions that Openai agents will automate work

In what SoftBank’s most trick for the disappearance of wicked money may be, the Japanese investment company will pay $ 3 billion a year to force companies in its portfolio to experiment with AI agents.

Softbank and Openai announced on Monday that they are setting up a joint venture to develop a new product called Cristal Intelligence, which will build the latest OPENAI reasoning models to create AI agents that will perform tasks without human intervention S

Softbank said in a Press release that it plans to automate over 100 million work processes among its companies, which may include the generation of financial statements, preparation of documents and managing customer inquiries.

“By automating and autonating all its tasks and work processes, Softbank Corp. It will transform its business and services and create a new value, “the company said.

Openai has already launched a visualization of its Operator’s Tools for their highest level subscribers who pay $ 200 a month and now have the privilege of Don’t click on buttons To plan their own hairstyles.

The new Cristal intelligence system will create similar agents, but they will be trained in corporate customer data and customized for their systems and needs, SoftBank said. At least initially, it will be launched exclusively to “big companies in Japan.”

Softbank, led by his chairman Masayoshi, has built a strong reputation in the space of technological endeavors with early investment in companies such as Uber, Doordash and Alibaba. But in recent years, his bets have been significantly less successful, especially when it comes to transforming the nature of work. It lost billions Eg webook and threw $ 375 million in now non -existent Juicewho promised to automate and disturb the creation of pizzas.

Cristal intelligence partnership deepens its financial share in Openai. Softbank is According to messages In negotiations to invest $ 25 billion directly in the company and she has already announced a cooperation called StargateAnother joint venture, including Openai, which plans to spend $ 500 billion over the next four years to build AI infrastructure as data centers.

Big Bets of the Company come against the backdrop of a lot of over the potential of AI agents, but also as breakthroughs from the Chinese company Deepseek have raised questions about whether more cheaper, more effective AI developers will undermine Openai, which is losing money On his most expensive subscription plan because of the cost of managing technology.