TL;DRSoftBank briefly overtook Toyota as Japan’s most valuable company, the first time since February 2000 when dot-com was about to collapse. Kioxia went from 154th to top three in a year. The AI-or-nothing rally is reshuffling Japan Inc at alarming speed.
SoftBank knocked Toyota off its perch as Japan’s most valuable company last week, after a stock rally inflated the conglomerate’s market capitalisation by more than $120 billion in six months. Three days later, Toyota reclaimed the top spot.
The last time SoftBank held that position was February 2000, when the dot-com bubble was on the cusp of collapse. Within a year, SoftBank’s shares had fallen roughly 90%.
The reshuffle in numbers
Kioxia, the NAND flash memory maker, was Japan’s 154th largest company a year ago. It now sits firmly in the top three, having leapfrogged Nintendo, Sony, Panasonic, and Canon on the back of surging AI-driven memory demand.
