The rally in SoftBank, which has a significant weighting in Japan’s Nikkei 225 average, pushed the country’s benchmark index to a new high.
SoftBank Group Corp.’s (SFTBY) Tokyo-listed shares have seen a strong two-day surge, mirroring the buoyancy seen in Oracle stock after the Larry Ellison-founded company spoke about strong artificial intelligence (AI) momentum.
The rally in SoftBank, which has a significant weighting in Japan’s Nikkei 225 average, pushed the country’s benchmark index to a new high.
Oracle’s Nasdaq-listed stock settled Wednesday’s session up nearly 36%, after Ellison and CEO Safra Catz highlighted the company’s AI opportunity in the quarterly release and during the earnings call.
The optimism seeped down to SoftBank’s stock, an investment holding company run by Masayoshi Son that invests heavily in technology through its SoftBank Vision Funds (SVF).
While speaking at SoftBank’s annual shareholder meeting held in July, Son expressed hopes to transform his company into the “world’s top platformer for ASI [artificial super intelligence] as he believed that it would be a winner-takes-all arena. “I’m all in,” he had said.
Son was found alongside Ellison and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman in late January when President Donald Trump announced a $500 billion private investment through a project dubbed Stargate to expand AI infrastructure in the U.S. over the next five years.
Softbank and OpenAI are the lead partners, with the former focusing on operations and the latter on the financials. The two companies, along with Oracle and Abu Dhabi-based MGX, were named as equity partners.
The AI optimism will likely lift the SoftBank stock, according to Andrew Jackson of Ortus Advisors, MarketWatch said.
Referring to the surge in SoftBank’s Tokyo-listed stock on Wednesday, Jackson said, “Expect a nice bump higher for Softbank Group on this after its 7.3% move higher yesterday as investors joined the dots between this and Oracle’s connection, when only months ago Masayoshi Son [SoftBank chief executive] and Larry Ellison [Oracle chairman] stood together as Trump announced the Stargate program,” he wrote on SmartKarma, an investment intelligence platform.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward SoftBank stock remained ‘bearish’ (30/100) by late Wednesday, and the message volume was ‘low.’
The firm reported in early August first-quarter profits that were double that of the consensus estimates, thanks to the earnings from its bets in Nvidia and its other tech portfolio that are part of the SVF.
SoftBank’s stock, which trades over the counter (OTC) in the U.S., has gained 95% this year.
For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.<