Shares of SoftBank Group Corp. fell more than 10% in trading on Thursday, a decline that occurred amid a wider sell-off affecting technology stocks across Asia. The downturn in Asian markets followed an overnight drop in the U.S. technology sector.
The Japanese investment firm’s shares closed 10.6% lower at 7,434 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The stock’s movement on Thursday came after a period of strong performance, with its share price having risen approximately 70% year-to-date. This gain, which reports link to investor interest in artificial intelligence, recently positioned SoftBank ahead of Toyota Motor as Japan’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
The trend was reflected in other major Asian technology firms. In South Korea, Samsung’s shares declined by 1.25%, and SK Hynix saw its shares decrease by 2.75%. Reports attributed these movements to profit-taking by investors following significant valuation gains for both companies.
In comments made to CNBC on Monday, before the most recent stock decline, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son addressed the possibility of a market correction. Son stated that a potential correction would represent “the best investment opportunity” for him. He also said he expects the impact of the AI revolution to be significantly larger than that of the dot-com revolution in the 2000s.
External commentary on market dynamics was provided in a recent investor note from Deutsche Bank. Analyst Peter Milliken wrote that the market appears “to become fixated on short-term momentum, and less interested, or unable, to map out the long-term trajectory with detailed assumptions.”
Separately, SoftBank confirmed on Wednesday that it had sold a portion of its holdings in the Indian eyewear company Lenskart. Through its affiliate, SVF II Lightbulb (Cayman), the company sold a 3.25% stake, amounting to 56.5 million shares. The shares were sold at 508.55 Indian rupees each, for a total transaction value of approximately 28.73 billion rupees. According to transaction details, buyers of the shares included mutual funds managed by ICICI Prudential, financial services provider Kotak Mahindra, and the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System.
