Tech investor SoftBank Group dethroned automaker Toyota to become Japan's most valuable company, as the benchmark Nikkei index briefly reached a new high on Monday amid the continued artificial intelligence boom.
SoftBank, a major backer of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, soared more than 11% in the afternoon trade, after its founder announced a 75-billion-euro ($87.5 billion) investment in AI infrastructure in France.
Masayoshi Son told La Tribune Dimanche weekly on Saturday that it "will be the largest investment in Europe in infrastructure related to artificial intelligence."
SoftBank said last month its annual net profit quadrupled to more than $30 billion, mainly thanks to its investment in OpenAI.
The company's market capitalization grew on Monday to more than 47 trillion yen, while Toyota's fell to just under 46 trillion yen after its shares dropped nearly 5%.
The third-largest is chipmaker Kioxia, formerly the semiconductor unit of the engineering giant Toshiba. It jumped more than 8%.
Global demand for the chips has been driven by the growth of AI technology.
The Nikkei index briefly surpassed 67,000 for the first time in the morning trade.
