Driven by the AI wave, SoftBank Group’s stock surged about 10.3% on June 1, pushing its market cap to 47.2 trillion yen (approx. $296 billion). This surpassed Toyota Motor, which fell about 4.8% (market cap shrinking to 45.7 trillion yen), making SoftBank Japan’s most valuable listed company for the first time in roughly 23 years. On the same day, the Nikkei 225 index broke through 67,000 points for the first time, hitting an intraday high of 67,231. SoftBank alone contributed 618 of the index’s total 709-point gain for the day, while the broader Topix index fell 0.2%, reflecting a clear divergence between AI-themed stocks and other sectors.
The direct catalyst for this surge was SoftBank’s weekend announcement of a €75 billion (approx. $87 billion) investment in French AI infrastructure over the next five years — one of the largest AI investment commitments ever made to a single country. SoftBank’s shares have gained over 80% year-to-date, driven primarily by its massive exposure to OpenAI and the potential listing of its portfolio companies. Toyota had held the top spot in Japan by market cap since surpassing NTT Docomo in 2003. Market analysts see this changing of the guard as a landmark moment, signaling the AI boom’s reshaping of Japan’s corporate landscape.