Softbank plans to foster strong competitors that can compete against Nvidia in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor industry led by Nvidia. On the 20th, Softbank Group traded at 8584 yen (as of 11:30 a.m.), up 0.42% from the previous day on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. If this atmosphere continues until the market closes, Softbank Group will close its gains for the second consecutive trading day. The stock price is believed to have risen on the news that Chairman Son will create a $100 billion semiconductor fund. Bloomberg News reported on the 17th (local time), citing unnamed sources, that Softbank plans to create a semiconductor fund to supply high-performance semiconductors essential to AI. Softbank plans to establish a company that can mass-produce AI semiconductors while supplementing ARM, a semiconductor design company with a 90% stake. Softbank Group’s stock price is affected by the performance and stock prices of investment companies. In the past two years, Softbank’s stock price fell more than 40% from 16,35 yen on March 12, 2021, to 6,293 yen at the end of last year (December 29), as several technology companies invested by Softbank went bankrupt in the aftermath of high interest rates.As ARM’s stock price soared recently, SoftBank Group is following a similar trajectory to ARM’s stock price graph. As ARM has been on the rise since July 7, its parent company SoftBank’s stock price jumped from 6,618 yen per share to 8,500 yen on the day. Meanwhile, Lydia Jett, a U.S. managing partner who was in charge of investment in e-commerce and fintech of Vision Fund, is leaving SoftBank Group. “SoftBank’s first female partner Lydia Jett has decided to leave the company,” Bloomberg reported on Wednesday (local time). Jett has invested in Coupang, TikTok parent company ByteDance, and NFT platform Candy.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
