To operate the service, SoftBank will be tapping into another big AI effort at the company: a computing platform, built on Nvidia GPUs, that "can be utilized for developing generative AI and other applications," including academic research and enterprise services. That will be online before the end of March 2024, the company said. Hironobu Tamba — a long-time SoftBank employee who has most recently been running the company's AI and IoT division — will lead the new business, which is starting off with a paid-in capital sum of 150 million yen — or just over $1 million at today's rates.