SoftBank shares rise as rally in Japanese tech stocks boosts Nikkei to record high
CANADA – 2025/08/07: In this photo illustration, the SoftBank Group (Soft Bank) logo can be seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Image credit by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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Shares in a Japanese technology investment company SoftBank Group rose 16.5% on Thursday, amid a broader technology-driven rally that saw Japan Nikkei 225 climb to record height.
Japanese markets reopened after an extended holiday and investors rushed to catch a global rally fueled by artificial intelligence, which sent Japanese tech names higher.
While SoftBank is on track to record its best day since 2020, if successful, the maker of chip testing equipment. Advantest rose about 7.8%, while the semiconductor equipment supplier Tokyo Electron increased by 9.2%. Chip solutions provider Renesas Electronics increased by 13.8%.
SoftBank shares since the beginning of the year
The rally came after Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite hit another overnight record, as stocks linked to US artificial intelligence surged. Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. up 18.6%, Arm Holdings advanced 13% and server maker Super Micro Computer Inc. increased by 24.5%.
“Japan closed after the end of Golden Week while global risk assets rallied, so today’s move is the Nikkei’s three-period call at once,” said Global X ETFs investment strategist Billy Leung.
“The SPX hit a new record and the Nasdaq made another all-time high while Tokyo was closed, led by semis and AI names,” Leung said, adding that Advantest and Tokyo Electron “are the most liquid Japanese expressions of that AI trade.”
He added that reducing geopolitical concerns also helped sentiment, as oil prices fell amid signs of a trade war between the US and Iran.
SoftBank’s benefits are enhanced by its close ties to Arm and artificial intelligence firm OpenAI. “SoftBank is a listed representative of OpenAI and Arm,” Leung said.
The move also reflected investors’ growing optimism about the need for AI-related data center infrastructure and agent AI systems.
Rolf Bulk, head of semiconductor and infrastructure at The Futurum Group, said the rally reflects growing optimism about the long-term demand for AI infrastructure.
“I think it’s partly a rally after the strong performance of AI-related stocks in the US yesterday, and the reaction to AMD’s quarterly report, which had a strong reading for Arm,” said Bulk.
“CPUs are essential for inference AI workloads; they handle for example agent sandboxes, orchestration servers, database and API layers. With the increasing demand for AI and agents, datacenter CPUs have become one of the key bottlenecks in building an AI infrastructure.”
The pile pointed to AMD’s recent forecast that the total configurable market for datacenter CPUs could reach $120 billion by 2030, growing more than 35% annually.
