When I saw OpenAI’s surprise Deep Research announcement on Sunday, I didn’t know what to make of it. This couldn’t be about the DeepSeek earthquake last week. The Chinese startup came up with an AI model as powerful as OpenAI’s ChatGPT o1 reasoning model that costs a fraction of the cost to train. But then OpenAI released the o3-mini reasoning models on Friday, which should have dealt with some of the DeepSeek problems.
ChatGPT Deep Research was about something else, though, yes, you can argue it’s another display of force in the face of stronger-than-expected Chinese competition. Deep Research is an AI agent like Operator. DeepSeek has neither.
A few hours later, I’m no longer surprised by OpenAI’s action. This had a different, carefully calculated purpose. OpenAI traveled to Japan to ask for money, and products like ChatGPT Deep Research are what make that happen. And money OpenAI received, to the tune of multiple billions. Make that tens of billions of dollars, if some reports are accurate.
SoftBank will become a big investor in OpenAI, with the two parties forming a Japan-specific venture. While that’s probably great news for the future of ChatGPT software, I’m more interested in what SoftBank financing can mean for the ChatGPT hardware that’s supposedly coming.
Early rumors said that Sam Altman met with Jony Ive to discuss making the iPhone of AI. The two also reportedly met with Masayoshi Son, the SoftBank chief, who would provide huge financing for the project. Rumors mentioned a $1 billion figure, which seemed incredibly optimistic about a year ago. After Monday’s news, it looks like chump change that SoftBank might be ready to pay.
Consider this: OpenAI and the SoftBank Group have formed the SB OpenAI Japan venture, with each party holding 50% in the new entity. Per the Associated Press, Son talked about Cristal, an AI service that will be first available to its companies, including Arm.
As you might have guessed, Cristal Intelligence will be powered by ChatGPT tech, including the new Deep Research product that Sam Altman & Co. announced on Sunday. SoftBank will actually get access to ChatGPT Enterprise, which also comes with support for Operator, the AI agent that OpenAI announced a few days ago. Cristal AI is a much better name than ChatGPT, by the way.
SoftBank will spend $3 billion annually to offer ChatGPT access to all its subsidiaries.
On top of that, SoftBank is supposed to invest between $15 billion and $25 billion in OpenAI in a funding round that would see the ChatGPT creator valued at $340 billion. The figures come from people familiar with the matter who informed CNCB that OpenAI plans to raise up to $40 billion in the coming funding round.
If the figures are accurate, SoftBank will overtake Microsoft as OpenAI’s biggest investor. Even if they aren’t, SoftBank is still part of the massive $500 Stargate AI infrastructure project announced a few days ago.
CNBC says a part of the funding will go to the Stargate project.
With SoftBank potentially spending tens of billions on funding ChatGPT one way or another in the coming years, footing $1 billion for the research and development phase of the first ChatGPT hardware seems like a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things.
SoftBank’s involvement is speculation on my part based on older rumors. But remember those stories about Son going to Steve Jobs to ask for iPhone exclusivity in Japan before the iPhone was official? It’s that kind of crazy bet we might look at again. The iPhone exclusivity deal was a $17 billion gamble for Son, which paid off tremendously. The ChatGPT hardware might be next.
On the same note, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said while in Japan that he wants the first ChatGPT device to replace the smartphone. OpenAI will need a lot of money to do that.
