SoftBank’s market cap topped Toyota’s on Monday for the first time in 23 years, lifted by its ~$65bn OpenAI stake and a Nikkei breaking 67,000 for the first time.
SoftBank Group overtook Toyota Motor on Monday to become Japan’s most valuable listed company, the first time the auto giant has been dethroned from the top of the Japanese corporate hierarchy in 23 years.
SoftBank’s market capitalisation reached roughly ¥47.2tn (about $296bn), pulling ahead of Toyota’s ¥45.7tn after the carmaker’s stock dropped 4.8% on the day. The crossover was confirmed mid-session on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The shift carries symbolic weight beyond the headline numbers. Toyota has anchored the top of Japan’s market-cap rankings since 2003.
Its displacement by Masayoshi Son’s technology-and-investment conglomerate marks, in market-architecture terms, the formal handover of Japanese corporate leadership from the post-war manufacturing-export model to an AI-investment-and-licensing model.The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
