On June 1, Nikkei Asia reported that as the AI craze accelerated in global stock markets, SoftBank Group's share price rose sharply, pushing the technology giant's market value to surpass Toyota Motor Corporation for the first time in more than two decades.
SoftBank’s market capitalization exceeds that of Toyota
On Monday, SoftBank's share price surged more than 8%, hitting a record high during the session, with a market value of 46 trillion yen (approximately US$289 billion), becoming the company with the highest market value on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Toyota Motor, which has long held the top spot, has a market capitalization of about 45 trillion yen. This is the first time since the peak of the dot-com bubble in March 2000 that SoftBank's market value has surpassed Toyota's.
Behind the surge in SoftBank's stock price this time is its eye-catching financial report and its huge bet on OpenAI. The financial report shows that SoftBank achieved a net profit of 18.2 trillion yen (approximately US$11.4 billion) in the first three months of 2026, 3.5 times that of the same period last year. At the same time, SoftBank is also continuously increasing its investment in OpenAI. It completed an investment of US$10 billion in April this year and promised to invest an additional US$20 billion within the year. By then, its total investment will reach approximately US$65 billion.