SoftBank overtakes Toyota to become Japan’s most valuable company

Tech investment conglomerate SoftBank with a market valuation of US$306 billion is now Japan’s top company by market valuation, moving ahead of automaker Toyota.

SoftBank shares are up more than 90 per cent this year as it pushes into AI investments. SoftBank has invested $65 billion into OpenAI and now has a 14 per cent stake in that company.

Earlier today SoftBank announced that it will be investing $75 billion euros into data centres in France.

Today its shares were up 14 per cent in Tokyo trading.

SoftBank was founded  in 1981 by Masayoshi Son. Starting out with over $100 billion in capital, SoftBank’s Vision Fund is the world’s largest tech-focused venture capital fund.

SoftBank holds stakes in Alibaba and Deutsche Telekom.

“SoftBank has concentrated its management resources on AI-related businesses and has successfully ridden the broader global tech rally. Toyota, meanwhile has been hit by rising oil prices stemming from the Iran war, which raises the cost of operating vehicles and weighs on global auto demand.

“Over the longterm, AI-related companies are likely to command higher valuations. Their presence in Japan’s equity market will only continue to grow stronger,” said Invesco Asset Management Japan’s Global Market Strategist Tomo Kinoshita.

Commenting on this new high for SoftBank, Head of Research at Philip Securities Japan added: “This epoch-making event symbolises the AI boom. Extraordinary conditions are emerging around expectations for massive IPOs in the U.S. triggering a reshuffle of capital.”