SoftBank and OpenAI this week announced a new 50-50 joint venture to sell enterprise AI tools in Japan under the “Crystal Intelligence” brand. In theory, this is a simple international expansion deal. But SoftBank's role as a major investor in OpenAI raises questions about whether the biggest AI deals are creating real economic value or just circulating capital.
On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Kolosek, Anthony Ha, and AI editor Russell Brandom explain why people are skeptical about this deal and what it suggests about the sustainability of AI's current investment model.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
What Box CEO Aaron Levie had to say at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 about whether we're in an AI bubble and why moving from training to inference can actually be reassuring
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