A jolt of pure, unadulterated optimism has ripped through the Tokyo stock market, as the Japanese investment titan SoftBank Group Corp. saw its shares surge by as much as 13 percent to a new record high.
The catalyst for this explosive rally was a single, powerful move: the company’s agreement to acquire the industrial robotics arm of the Swiss conglomerate ABB Ltd. for approximately $5.4 billion, a deal that is being hailed as a masterstroke in the high-stakes game of artificial intelligence.
The stunning gain, SoftBank’s steepest since August, is the market’s clear and emphatic verdict on a string of AI-related bets that have propelled the company to new heights. But this deal is different.
This is the move that validates the entire strategy.
Beyond the code: a bold leap into ‘physical AI’
For months, the market has been trying to decipher SoftBank’s next move. Now, it has its answer.
The acquisition of ABB’s robotics unit is a bold and strategic leap beyond the digital world of software and into the tangible, kinetic realm of “physical AI.”
It is a bet on the next industrial revolution, and analysts are taking notice.
“We expect investors to be more positive about the robot investments and the opportunity to make profits in industrial AI,” wrote Oliver Matthew, an analyst at CLSA Securities Japan Co., in a report.
We had been wondering why SoftBank rearranged its robotics assets, and the ABB deal looks like the answer.
This is SoftBank branching out into what Andrew Jackson, head of Japan equity strategy at Ortus Advisors Pte, described as a field that is “heralded as being able to usher in the next industrial revolution.”
A rising tide lifts the entire sector
This powerful move is not happening in a vacuum. It comes amid a broad and powerful rebound in Japanese AI-related shares, a rally that has been further fueled by recent comments from Nvidia Corp. chief Jensen Huang that demand for his company’s new Blackwell chips is “really, really high.”
The surge in SoftBank’s stock has acted as a powerful engine for the broader market, helping to bolster Japan’s blue-chip Nikkei 225, which rose as much as 1.6 percent on Thursday morning.
The ABB deal is also expected to heighten growth expectations across Japan’s entire industrial robot industry, a positive sign for domestic makers like Yaskawa Electric Corp.
In a market constantly searching for a clear signal, SoftBank has just delivered a powerful and unambiguous one.
The giant is not just investing in the future of AI; it is actively building it, and investors are rewarding that vision with a rally for the ages.
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