SoftBank Group Dethrones Toyota as Japan's Most Valuable Firm

Tokyo, June 1 (Jiji Press)--SoftBank Group Corp. became the most valuable Japanese company on Monday, ending Toyota Motor Corp.'s 22-year reign.

On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, SoftBank Group shares jumped about 14 pct, boosting the company's market capitalization to 48,784.8 billion yen, above Toyota's 45,892.3 billion yen.

The milestone comes as the stock market has recently been driven by SoftBank Group and other technology issues, including those related to artificial intelligence and semiconductors.

Meanwhile, automobile stocks have been weighed down by rising crude oil prices.

SoftBank Group's stock price has been rising on news that OpenAI, the U.S. developer of ChatGPT, in which the Japanese technology investor has a stake, is preparing an initial public offering, as well as on a rosy earnings report from its British chip designer unit, Arm Holdings PLC.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]