After SoftBank JV, OpenAI Partners With Kakao Amid Hardware, Robots, & AI Chips Trademark Filing

Over the last few weeks, OpenAI has been a major point of discussion.

For one, the company faced immense scrutiny and skepticism by investors and users who questioned the high costs involved in developing its products.

This question mainly came up as China’s DeepSeek claimed to have developed an artificial intelligence chatbot (R1) that performed at par with OpenAI’s most promising GenAI (generative artificial intelligence) models, even surpassing it in several benchmarks.

DeepSeek’s claim was short-lived though, as numerous experts and governments around the world began probing the company, its tools, and its tools’ capabilities, through which they found that DeepSeek hid many crucial details about its operations.

Moreover, saying the outputs it generated weren’t of the highest quality could be considered an understatement, as NewsGuard reported that DeepSeek’s chatbot was able to achieve only 17% accuracy in delivering news and information.

This didn’t dither OpenAI, which announced its new model—o3-mini—that beat DeepSeek’s R1 anyway.

However, the biggest headline for OpenAI wasn’t either of these developments, instead, it was one that spoke volumes about the confidence Big Tech has in AI.

Stargate, a $500 billion project that witnessed a collaboration between OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX, with the inclusion of NVIDIA, Arm, and Microsoft—OpenAI’s primary backer—was where all the news ink went.

The move, also led to an offshoot joint venture between OpenAI and SoftBank in Japan called SB OpenAI Japan.

Now, additional details have emerged about the partnership, courtesy of a news release published by SoftBank on its website, which included key details about Stargate.

The two companies will develop and market Advanced Enterprise AI called Cristal Intelligence, which will integrate each other's systems and data, enabling use cases tailored specifically for each company. As such, SoftBank will spend $3 billion annually to use OpenAI’s technology across its group companies, making it the first company in the world to integrate Cristal intelligence at scale.

The new JV will play an instrumental role in marketing Cristal Intelligence major Japanese companies.

The partnership will also bring priority access (in Japan) to OpenAI’s latest and most-advanced models to SoftBank Group companies, which include SoftBank Corp. and Arm.

Arm will drive innovation and boost productivity across the company, while SoftBank Corp. will be able to automate over 100 million workflows, create new business opportunities, and build a secure environment for additional data training and fine-tuning of its data.

“This initiative will not only transform the way SoftBank Group operates but also revolutionize the way companies work in Japan and around the globe,” said Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said, “This partnership with SoftBank will accelerate our vision for bringing transformative AI to some of the world’s most influential companies—starting with Japan.”

TechDogs-"A Screenshot Of The Logos Of SoftBank And OpenAI In The Stargate PPT"

Source

Following the SoftBank JV announcement, OpenAI signed a first of its kind strategic partnership with Kakao, South Korea’s leading mobile communication company and owner of renowned messaging app KakaoTalk, which allows the company to enjoy a 97% domestic market share.

Through the deal, Kakao will use OpenAI’s AI technology to develop and enhance its services, in a way that’s tailor-made for the unique needs of Korean users.

This will include enabling a new, user-friendly communication AI agent called Kanana, which will deliver personalized, context-aware responses. Kakao will also deploy ChatGPT Enterprise for its employees, boosting productivity, efficiency, and smarter workflows.

“Through this collaboration, Kakao will further advance its orchestration strategy and mark a turning point in Kakao’s efforts to bring the future closer,” said, Shina Chung, CEO of Kakao.

OpenAI's Sam Altman said, “We’re excited to bring advanced AI to Kakao’s millions of users and work together to integrate our technology into services that transform how Kakao’s users communicate and connect.”

TechDogs-"An Image Of Shina Chung, CEO Of Kakao And Sam Altman, CEO Of OpenAI"

Source

OpenAI also filed an application to trademark products connected to its brand name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the last week.

Through the application, OpenAI listed a wide range of products and services, that sparked rumors that the company was about to enter new technology arenas such as humanoid robots, smart jewelry, AI chips, computer hardware, earphones, headphones, sunglasses, laptop cases, mobile phone cases, smart watches, smart bands, wearable computers, wearable cameras, AR & VR headsets, goggles, glasses, controllers, remotes, and others.

Do you think OpenAI will be successful in the AI hardware market?

Let us know in the comments below!

First published on Thu, Feb 6, 2025

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