SoftBank Salip Toyota, Japanese Business Map Changes

SoftBank Group Corp.'s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo: Kyodo.)

JAKARTA - SoftBank Group overtook Toyota Motor and became the most valuable listed company in Japan. For the first time in more than 22 years, the top position in Japanese market capitalization has been taken away from the automotive giant.

Kyodo News, quoted on Monday, June 1, reported that SoftBank's market capitalization at the close of Monday's trading exceeded 48 trillion yen or about 301 billion US dollars. Toyota was slightly below 46 trillion yen.

SoftBank shares jumped 14 percent to 8,541 yen. By contrast, Toyota shares fell 4.5 percent to 2,905.5 yen.

Toyota has held the number one position since December 2003, after overtaking NTT Docomo. Now, the position has shifted to SoftBank amid investors' strong interest in technology and artificial intelligence stocks.

Kioxia Holdings is in third place with a market capitalization of around 39 trillion yen. The company's shares have also soared in recent weeks.

Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Masayoshi Son said that technological competition does not give room for complacency.

"In the technology race, competing companies will pass you by if you are careless. We will remain vigilant and focus more on our growth," Son told reporters in Paris.

Son has big ambitions. He wants SoftBank to become the world's leading platform for artificial superintelligence, or artificial superintelligence, which is AI that surpasses human intelligence.

SoftBank's share rally was also driven by reports that OpenAI, the AI company behind ChatGPT and where SoftBank invested, is preparing to file an initial public offering or IPO.

The positive sentiment increased after SoftBank announced plans to invest up to 75 billion euros or around 87.3 billion US dollars to build a data center business in France.

Last month, SoftBank reported a net profit for the fiscal year 2025 jumped more than fourfold to 5 trillion yen. The figure was a record high for Japanese companies.

The change in position shows how technology and AI stocks are starting to take a bigger place in the Japanese market, after more than two decades of the top position being held by Toyota.