OpenAI has formed a joint venture with SoftBank Group to expand artificial intelligence (AI) services for businesses globally, starting with those in Japan.

SoftBank, which is headquartered in Japan, will drive the push to integrate and customize OpenAI's tools into companies. The two firms have set up a 50-50 joint venture called SP OpenAI Japan to deploy their Advanced Enterprise AI system, which they have dubbed "Cristal intelligence."

Cristal will be rolled out among SoftBank companies, including chip-design giant Arm Holdings (ARM), which will use it to "boost productivity across the company." SoftBank said it would spend $3 billion a year to use the ChatGPT owner's technology across its businesses. 

The move by OpenAI comes just a week after markets globally tumbled as a low-cost super-efficient model released by Chinese startup DeepSeek upended the AI industry.

OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle (ORCL) formed a joint venture together last month to build AI infrastructure in the U.S. Dubbed Stargate, the project will see the companies invest as much as $500 billion over the next four years in what U.S. President Donald Trump has called the "largest AI infrastructure project in history."