SoftBank Overtakes Toyota As Japan’s Most Valuable Listed Company

SoftBank Group Corp overtook Toyota Motor Corp on Monday to become Japan’s most valuable publicly traded company amid a rally in technology shares, marking the first time in more than 22 years for the automaker to cede the top spot.

Trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange ended with SoftBank Group seeing its market capitalization surpass 48 trillion yen ($301 billion), compared with just under 46 trillion yen for Toyota Motor, in what would be a shift in Japan’s industrial landscape.

Toyota Motor had retained the top position since December 2003 when it overtook NTT Docomo Inc.

As of Monday’s close, shares of SoftBank Group ended up 14.0 percent at 8,541 yen, while Toyota Motor shed 4.5 percent to 2,905.5 yen.

By market capitalization, Kioxia Holdings Corp ranked third at around 39 trillion yen after its shares surged in recent weeks.

“In competitions of technologies, rival companies will instantly pass you if you let your guard down.

We will stay sharp and focus further on our growth,” Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, told reporters in Paris.

Son has set a goal for the company to become the world’s leading platform for artificial superintelligence that goes beyond the wisdom of mankind.

SoftBank Group shares have been on an upward trend after a report that OpenAI, the U.S. artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT and in which SoftBank Group is an investor, is preparing to file for an initial public offering.

Stocks were boosted further by the Japanese investment and technology group’s announcement over the weekend that it will invest up to 75 billion euros ($87.3 billion) to launch a data center business in France.