S&P 500 eases slightly from fresh record high after stronger economic growth
Investing.com--SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) shares hit a record high in Tokyo trade on Friday, after the technology conglomerate clocked stellar June quarter earnings on a sharp run-up in its artificial intelligence-lined investments.
Softbank (OTC:SFTBY) shares rallied over 13% to a record high of 14,230.0 yen, also driving an over 2% jump in the Nikkei 225 index. Softbank also pushed the TOPIX to a record high.
The firm clocked a stronger-than-expected net profit of 421.8 billion yen ($2.87 billion) for the June quarter, as it benefited from heightened market optimism over AI, which in turn pushed up the value of its investments.
Softbank has holdings in a slew of public and private AI-related companies, with its public holdings including chipmaking giant Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). The company saw a sizeable gain in the valuation of its Nvidia shares.
The Japanese tech conglomerate also owns British chip designer Arm, which is well-exposed to increasing chip demand from the AI industry.
Softbank is also set to benefit from several of its portfolio firms going public this year, such as India’s Lenskart.
Softbank said the value of its Vision Funds rose $4.8 billion in the June quarter, its biggest gain since the same quarter in 2021.