SoftBank Group overtook Toyota Motor as Japan’s most valuable company, as AI gains propelled the technology group ahead of the country’s largest automaker.
SoftBank shares rose 14% in Tokyo trading on Monday, taking its market value above JPY48 trillion ($306 billion), past Toyota’s nearly JPY46 trillion.
Bloomberg noted the shift marks the first time in more than two decades SoftBank moved ahead of Toyota on market value including treasury shares. According to the publication, SoftBank last briefly held the position during Japan’s internet bubble in 2000.
The move caps a sharp run for SoftBank, with its shares up more than 90% this year. Toyota has moved the other way, falling more than 10% as automakers face rising fuel costs and the expensive shift to electric vehicles and software-led platforms.
Meanwhile, SoftBank’s gains have been buoyed by ambitious bets on OpenAI; the company has committed close to $65 billion to OpenAI to date, giving it a projected stake of about 13% by October.
Earlier this year, OpenAI and SoftBank also jointly invested $1 billion in US digital infrastructure company SB Energy, which will build and operate a 1.2GW data centre for OpenAI in Texas. The trio are working to develop a new model for data centre builds, tied to the broader $500 billion US-led Stargate initiative focussed on AI and energy infrastructure.
SoftBank also announced an investment of up to €75 billion in AI data centre infrastructure in France earlier today (1 June), adding it will work with SB Energy and other strategic partners to deliver the projects.
Kazuhiro Sasaki, head of research at Phillip Securities Japan, told Bloomberg: “This epoch-making event symbolises the AI boom.”
Meanwhile, Tomo Kinoshita, global market strategist at Invesco Asset Management Japan, told the publication SoftBank had “concentrated its management resources on AI-related businesses” and “successfully ridden the broader global tech rally”.
For Toyota, higher oil prices linked to conflict in the Middle East also added to pressure on global auto demand, he noted.
“Over the longer term, AI-related companies are likely to command higher valuations,” Kinoshita added.
The post SoftBank topples Toyota to become Japan’s top company appeared first on Mobile World Live.
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