SoftBank leads decline in Japanese tech stocks as worries over AI spending spill over to Asia
TOKYO, JAPAN – FEBRUARY 03: SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son speaks at the event titled “Transforming Business through Artificial Intelligence” held in Tokyo, Japan on February 03, 2025. SoftBank and OpenAI announced a partnership to establish a joint venture for artificial intelligence services in Japan.
Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Japanese tech stocks fell on Thursday as AI infrastructure spending concerns on Wall Street crossed the ocean and reached Asian markets, with AI-related stocks falling.
Softbank Group Inc. Ranked among the biggest losers in the benchmark Nikkei 225The index led the losses in Asia with a decrease of 1.23%, falling to 7.25%. The group recouped some losses and last traded down 3%.
This decline comes mainly from technology Nasdaq Composite It fell by 1.81% overnight due to its losses. SeerBroadcom, Nvidia and other AI games.
The losses at Oracle come after the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Blue Owl Capital’s plans to finance the cloud infrastructure company’s $10 billion Michigan data center have stalled. The company last week denied a report saying it was delaying leading artificial intelligence OpenAI projects to 2028.
Technology-focused SoftBank has seen sharp swings in its shares over the past month as fears about AI-related spending weighed on the market.
At the beginning of the year, the group announced its investment plans 500 billion dollars in artificial intelligence infrastructure OpenAI operates in the US with Oracle and other partners, and in September announced five new US AI data center sites as part of Stargate, OpenAI’s comprehensive AI infrastructure platform.
Other Japanese tech stocks also fell. Semiconductor equipment supplier cutting edgeIt dropped to 5%. Similar Lazertec, Renesas Electronics And Tokyo Electron It fell between 3 percent and 4 percent.
Much of what goes into data centers, power centers and AI hardware providers is “made in Japan and can only be made in Japan,” said Jesper Koll, director of expertise at Tokyo-based financial services firm Monex Group. This makes Japanese tech, especially AI-related stocks, more vulnerable to concerns about U.S. tech spending.
On Wednesday, Japan’s trade figures showed that electrical machinery exports rose 7.4% year on year, while semiconductor-related exports rose 13%. The U.S.-led boom in technology spending has translated into growth in specialty machinery and equipment exports, Koll said.
Losses in South Korean chip heavyweight Samsung Electronics were less pronounced at 0.93%, while SK Hynix reversed course and gained 0.73%. Taiwan’s TSMCthe world’s largest contract chipmaker, fell marginally.
