{"text":[[{"start":9.3,"text":"Tech giant SoftBank has become Japan’s biggest company by market value, as AI demand powered the country’s stocks to an all-time high and helped Masayoshi Son’s company overtake Toyota."}],[{"start":20.85,"text":"The car manufacturer and industrial giant has been Japan’s biggest company by market capitalisation for more than 20 years, and its ousting from the top slot reflects rising global investor interest in AI and semiconductor companies. "}],[{"start":34.900000000000006,"text":"The tech-heavy Nikkei 225 Average jumped more than 1.2 per cent in the first hour of trading on Monday, passing the 67,000-point level for the first time. It is now up almost 30 per cent since the start of 2026. The broader Topix index was trading roughly flat by lunchtime on Monday but up 13 per cent so far this year."}],[{"start":58.800000000000004,"text":"“Japan Inc. cannot escape the current zeitgeist — charismatic leadership and daredevil risk-taking beats out stubborn focus on incremental improvement and fortress balance sheets,” said Jesper Koll, a director at brokerage Monex Group."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":73,"text":"SoftBank is up nearly 73 per cent so far this year and hit another all-time high on Monday, rising more than 8 per cent after pledging to invest up to €75bn in a vast network of AI computing clusters in France. Its market capitalisation now exceeds ¥46tn ($288bn)."}],[{"start":95.3,"text":"Toyota, which at Friday’s close stood at just over ¥48tn in market cap, fell almost 4.5 per cent on Monday to below ¥46tn. The carmaker overtook telecoms group NTT Docomo as Japan’s largest company by that metric in 2003. "}],[{"start":114.3,"text":"SoftBank, with its massive exposure to ChatGPT maker OpenAI and wider ambitions in the world of AI, has transformed itself into a vehicle for the mania gripping Japan’s markets."}],[{"start":126.75,"text":"The company’s shares hit a high in October last year before falling sharply as investor sentiment turned against OpenAI. Since then, sentiment has shifted again as OpenAI’s plans for a public listing in the US have taken shape, while SoftBank’s crown jewel, chip designer Arm, has also forecast a rise in revenues from its coming in-house semiconductor."}],[{"start":149.7,"text":"The growing demand for tech stocks is evident across the Nikkei 225. Nomura’s equity analysts said last week that they believe the index will hit 68,000 by the end of 2026 and could rise to 70,000 next year, driven in part by the upwards revision of profit forecasts for AI and chip companies."}],[{"start":171.1,"text":"Tomochika Kitaoka, Nomura’s chief equity strategist, sounded a note of caution. “In the near term, we think this is a time to scrutinise whether the pace of improvement in earnings forecasts for AI and semiconductors seen to date is sustainable,” he said."}],[{"start":187.29999999999998,"text":"Semiconductor maker Kioxia has also soared in value, rising more than 525 per cent this year on expectations of massive demand for the memory chips needed to build data centres."}],[{"start":198.49999999999997,"text":"That has made it the third most valuable Japanese listed company, ahead of MUFG, Japan’s largest bank."}],[{"start":212.35,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780286523_4545.mp3"}