By TradingView
Publication Date: 2026-05-21 03:41:00
SoftBank stock staged one of its sharpest rallies in years on Thursday, jumping 20% in Tokyo and adding about $35 billion in market value after Nvidia’s results showed once again how strongly AI is driving global markets.
The trigger came from California, where Nvidia reported a record quarter that beat already elevated expectations.
By the time Asian markets opened, the read-across was clear: Nvidia’s numbers lifted Arm Holdings, Arm lifted SoftBank, and Masayoshi Son’s big AI bets suddenly looked more promising and less risky to investors.
The Nvidia effect
Nvidia reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $81.6 billion, up 85% from a year earlier, powered by another surge in data-center demand.
The chipmaker also authorised an additional $80 billion in share buybacks and increased its dividend, underscoring the substantial cash-generating force behind the AI infrastructure boom.
That single earnings print rippled quickly through Asian markets.
Arm Holdings, the chip designer majority-owned by SoftBank, rose about 15%, while SoftBank’s Tokyo-listed shares surged 20%, wiping out five straight sessions of losses.
For a company whose valuation is tightly linked to investor appetite for AI, Nvidia’s quarter gave the market a fresh reason to reprice Son’s portfolio.
SoftBank’s AI bet pays off
For SoftBank, the rally was about more than Arm as Son has spent the past year pushing the group deeper into AI, most notably through OpenAI.
SoftBank has invested more than $30…