SoftBank becomes proxy for OpenAI and Arm as investor optimism grows
SoftBank Group recorded its strongest daily performance since 2020 following the Golden Week
Shares in the Japanese tech-focused investment giant SoftBank Group soared by 16.5% on Thursday, amidst a broader tech-fuelled rally that propelled the Nikkei 225 to record highs.
As Japanese markets reopened following an extended holiday, investors rushed to align with a global surge in artificial intelligence-linked stocks.
This movement saw SoftBank on course to record its best trading day since 2020, while other major players like Tokyo Electron and Renesas Electronics surged by 9.2% and 13.8% respectively.
The rally was largely driven by overnight gains on the Nasdaq, where U.S. firms such as Advanced Micro Devices and Super Micro Computer saw significant jumps.
Investment strategists noted that the Japanese market was effectively pricing in three sessions of global growth in a single day.
SoftBank’s gains were particularly amplified by its substantial holdings in Arm and its strategic relationship with OpenAI, positioning the firm as a listed proxy for the burgeoning AI sector.
Market optimism is increasingly focused on the demand for data centre infrastructure required for AI inference and agentic systems.
Industry experts highlighted that central processing units have become a primary bottleneck in AI infrastructure build-out, handling critical orchestration and database layers.
With forecasts suggesting the total addressable market for data centre CPUs could reach $120 billion by 2030, the long-term outlook remains robust.
Easing geopolitical concerns between the U.S. and Iran further bolstered sentiment, providing a stable backdrop for this historic surge in the Japanese technology sector.