Tokyo, Japan – May 21, 2024. Shares of SoftBank Group Corp. experienced a significant surge today, climbing over 16% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This impressive gain, following five consecutive trading sessions of declines, is largely attributed to the robust financial performance of U.S. semiconductor titan Nvidia.

The Japanese conglomerate's fortunes are closely intertwined with the burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) industry. SoftBank holds a substantial stake in Arm Holdings, a key supplier whose chip designs are integral to Nvidia's server technologies. Furthermore, SoftBank's significant investment in OpenAI, reportedly exceeding $30 billion, has yielded substantial returns. For the fiscal year ending in March, SoftBank reported investment gains of $45 billion, a testament to the booming AI sector and its strategic positioning within it.

Nvidia, a leading designer of graphics processing units (GPUs) vital for AI computations, announced its quarterly earnings, revealing a dramatic 85% jump in revenue. The company reported $81.62 billion in revenue for the past quarter, a stark increase from $44.06 billion in the prior year. In addition to this stellar financial report, Nvidia unveiled an ambitious $80 billion share buyback program and increased its dividend payouts, further bolstering investor confidence.

The positive momentum for SoftBank's stock is also being fueled by optimism surrounding the potential initial public offering (IPO) of OpenAI. This prospect has already contributed to a more than 15% climb in Arm Holdings' stock on U.S. markets, further benefiting SoftBank's portfolio.

Analysts at CreditSights recently reiterated their "outperform" recommendation for SoftBank Group's debt obligations. They highlighted that the significant rally in Arm Holdings' shares has considerably strengthened the conglomerate's balance sheet, even amidst its aggressive investments in the AI landscape.

Glossary of Terms:

• Share Buyback (Biekybak): A process where a company repurchases its own outstanding shares from the open market. This reduces the total number of shares circulating, typically leading to an increase in the value of the remaining shares and signaling that the company has excess cash reserves.
• Outperform: An analytical forecast indicating that a particular asset or security is expected to deliver higher returns than the average market performance or a specific benchmark index. This serves as a signal to investors that the asset possesses strong growth potential.