According to TechCrunch, SoftBank and OpenAI announced a new 50-50 joint venture this week to sell enterprise AI tools in Japan under the brand “Crystal Intelligence.” The deal represents OpenAI’s latest international expansion effort following similar moves into markets like Europe and Southeast Asia. SoftBank remains a major investor in OpenAI despite this new partnership structure. The announcement comes amid growing scrutiny of whether major AI deals are creating genuine economic value or simply moving money between connected entities. On the Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha and AI editor Russell Brandom analyze why this particular arrangement has raised eyebrows across the industry.
The money-go-round question
Here’s the thing that makes this deal feel a bit… circular. SoftBank is already a huge investor in OpenAI. Now they’re setting up a joint venture where, presumably, SoftBank will be paying OpenAI for access to its technology. So money flows from SoftBank to OpenAI through investment, then potentially flows back through licensing deals? It’s not exactly arms-length when you’re basically doing business with yourself.
And this isn’t just about one deal. We’re seeing this pattern across the AI space where the same handful of massive players keep trading money and assets between themselves. The question isn’t whether these tools have value – they clearly do. But are we building sustainable businesses or just creating elaborate financial structures that look impressive on paper?
Beyond the AI bubble talk
The Equity crew also dug into Box CEO Aaron Levie’s comments at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 about whether we’re in an AI bubble. His take was interesting – the shift from training models to actually running inference might be more reassuring than people think. Basically, when companies start paying real money to use AI rather than just build it, that’s when you know the value is real.
Meanwhile, Beta Technologies just pulled off a $1 billion IPO that actually worked. That’s significant because the public markets have been pretty chilly toward tech IPOs lately. So maybe there’s some thaw happening, even if the massive M&A deals are still dominating headlines.
The rest of the tech landscape
Andreessen Horowitz shutting down its Talent x Opportunity fund raises questions about whether venture capital’s diversity efforts are getting deprioritized when markets get tough. The Equity team wasn’t buying the firm’s explanation entirely.
Then there’s former FTC chair Lina Khan joining NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team. That could mean some serious regulatory heat coming for Big Tech, ride-hailing companies, and autonomous vehicles in one of the world’s most important markets. When someone like Khan gets involved at the city level, you know the scrutiny isn’t going away.
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