SoftBank jumps 16.5% as AI chip rally lifts Japan stocks

SoftBank Group rose 16.5% on May 7 after Japan’s markets reopened from the Golden Week break.

The gains came as investors chased a global rally in AI and chip stocks that lifted the Nikkei 225 to a record high.

Advantest rose 7.8% while Tokyo Electron gained 9.2% and Renesas Electronics climbed 13.8%.

SoftBank was also supported by its stake in Arm, whose shares rose 13% overnight in the US.

The move reflected catch-up buying after Tokyo’s holiday closure and stronger sentiment from record highs in the Nasdaq after gains in AMD, Arm, and Super Micro Computer.

🔗 Source: CNBC

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Not all Japanese chip stock rallies rest on the same base

Share prices rose across the sector, though the businesses behind them are moving at different speeds.
Advantest and Tokyo Electron have clearer ties to AI demand. Advantest’s profit more than doubled last fiscal year as sales of chip testing tools climbed, while Tokyo Electron got support from AI server equipment 1 2.
Renesas Electronics is further behind.
It posted its first net loss in six years, and AI-related products made up about 10% of revenue 3.
The rise in its shares rests on expectations for a new direction. Renesas would rethink its view of AI businesses and invest heavily when needed after falling behind peers in AI exposure, said the president of Renesas 3.

The AI boom is also putting pressure on real-world infrastructure

Demand for chips and AI systems is starting to run into physical limits.
The hardware market now reaches beyond GPUs (graphics processing units, chips widely used to train and run AI systems). The server CPU (central processing unit) addressable market will grow more than 35% a year through 2030, up from about 18% as agentic AI widens processor demand, said AMD 4.
That increase in computing needs is straining power grids.
BloombergNEF, Bloomberg’s energy research unit, raised its 2035 forecast for data-center power demand by 36% in seven months. It now expects 106 gigawatts 5.
In some regions, BloombergNEF expects data center capacity to nearly equal projected new electricity generation over the same period, adding more pressure to infrastructure 5.