As SoftBank Group beats Toyota to become Japan's most valuable company after more than 20 years; founder Masayoshi Son can thank Sam Altman

Tech investing giant SoftBank Group has dethroned Toyota to become Japan’s most valuable company, ending Toyota’s over 20-year streak at the top of the Japanese market, signaling a chang as investor enthusiasm moves from traditional manufacturing to the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The Masayoshi Son-led firm has invested heavily in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

SoftBank shares skyrocketed more than 14% this week to close at an all-time high, driving its total market valuation to a staggering ¥48.8 trillion (approx $305 billion). Meanwhile, Toyota's stock dipped 4.5 percent, dropping its valuation to ¥45.9 trillion (approx $288 billion). Toyota had held the title of Japan's most valuable company since 2003, when it originally overtook telecom giant NTT Docomo, according to a report by The Financial Times.

The catalyst for the market surge was an announcement by SoftBank’s billionaire founder, who pledged to plow up to €75 billion ($87.5 billion) into building a massive network of next-generation AI data centres and computing clusters in France. Son called it “the largest investment in Europe in infrastructure related to artificial intelligence.”

The Sam Altman connection

While Masayoshi Son is steering the ship, he can largely thank OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for his company's dramatic financial turnaround. Just a month ago, SoftBank revealed that its annual net profit had quadrupled to over $30 billion. The main driver behind those blockbuster earnings was SoftBank’s massive financial exposure to OpenAI, led by Sam Altman. SoftBank holds a 13% stake in the startup. It is to be noted that Softbank sold its share in Nvidia to purchase a share in OpenAI.

The company's stock previously hit a high late last year before suffering a brutal drop when global investor sentiment temporarily soured on OpenAI amid corporate dramas. With Sam Altman now aggressively pushing forward with concrete plans for a US public stock listing (IPO) for OpenAI, investors have rushed back to SoftBank to get a piece of the action.