SoftBank overtakes Toyota to become Japan’s largest company by value

In short: SoftBank has overtaken Toyota to become Japan’s largest company by market value, helped by rising investor interest in AI-related stocks.

What's going on

SoftBank became Japan’s biggest listed company by market capitalisation, which is the total value of all its shares (like multiplying a company’s share price by how many shares exist). Toyota held the top spot for more than 20 years.

The change came after SoftBank’s shares rose strongly again on Monday. The Financial Times reported SoftBank is up nearly 73 per cent so far this year, and its market value moved above ¥46tn, or about $288bn.

Toyota moved the other way on the day. Its shares fell almost 4.5 per cent on Monday, pushing its market value below ¥46tn. Investors have been pouring money into companies linked to artificial intelligence and computer chips, and pulling attention away from more traditional industrial firms.

Japan’s main stock index, the Nikkei 225, also hit a new high, passing 67,000 for the first time. It is up almost 30 per cent since the start of 2026, according to the report.

SoftBank’s story is closely tied to AI bets. It has exposure to OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and it owns chip designer Arm. SoftBank recently said it could invest up to €75bn in AI computing clusters in France, which are large groups of computers used to run AI systems (like a factory for processing data).

What to watch

Analysts cautioned that the next question is whether AI and chip companies can keep increasing profits fast enough to justify today’s high share prices. Foreign investors have been buying Japanese shares for weeks, and continued overseas demand could keep pushing big tech-related stocks higher.

Source: Financial Times