On Monday SoftBank surpassed Toyota in market capitalization, making Masayoshi Son's company the most valuable publicly traded firm in Japan. The shift was driven by investor enthusiasm around artificial intelligence and the revaluation of SoftBank's stake in OpenAI.
What happened on the market
- SoftBank shares rose 14 percent on Monday, while Toyota's share price fell 4.5 percent.
- As a result, SoftBank's market value reached 48 trillion yen, compared with Toyota's valuation of 46 trillion yen.
- Since the start of the year SoftBank shares have climbed about 85 percent, whereas Toyota shares have lost roughly 15 percent of their value.
Bloomberg notes this is not the first time SoftBank has become Japan's most valuable company; it previously held the top spot during the dot-com bubble, a position that proved short-lived.
Broader market effects: AI and memory chips
The AI-driven optimism has reshaped other rankings as well: the memory-chip maker Kioxia Holding is now the third most valuable listed Japanese company, displacing Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Benefiting from data-center demand, Kioxia may earn in the current quarter more than its entire profit for the 12 months ending in March.
SoftBank's gains and the OpenAI investment
SoftBank's improved earnings are largely due to the increased valuation of its OpenAI stake, but that gain would be realized only through the sale of shares. OpenAI is expected to go public later this year, with projections that its valuation could exceed $1,000 billion.
SoftBank may invest up to $65 billion in OpenAI by October, for which it could obtain about a 13 percent stake.
Investments in France
The Japanese company also announced over the weekend that it could spend around 75 billion euros in France on AI infrastructure, including building data centers.
Why this matters
SoftBank reclaiming the top market position highlights how investor sentiment and AI-related expectations are reshaping stock market hierarchies. At the same time, realization of SoftBank's paper gains depends on share sales and OpenAI's eventual public offering, while Toyota and other traditional industrial players face pressure from industry challenges and geopolitical uncertainty.
