SoftBank Shares Rebound as Volatile Ride Continues

By Fabiana Negrin Ochoa and Kimberley Kao

Shares of SoftBank Group rebounded Wednesday, potentially on dip-buying after recent sharp losses, as the stock's volatile ride continues.

The Japanese tech investor's shares jumped 5.65% in Tokyo, climbing alongside other technology and financial stocks. The Nikkei Stock Average closed 1.85% higher.

The gains followed two straight sessions of steep declines and a rough month for SoftBank--its shares have fallen about 40% so far in November after a 45% gain in October.

Earlier in the day, the company also announced plans to issue seven-year bonds worth 500 billion yen, equivalent to $3.2 billion, with a 3.98% interest rate at par.

Proceeds will be used to repay debt, it said.

The bond, given an 'A' rating by Japan Credit Rating Agency, will be offered mainly to individual investors in Japan, Softbank said.

Softbank's whipsawing share price likely reflects investors' shifting sentiment about artificial intelligence and the company's bets in the space.

The company earlier this month sold its stake in Nvidia for $5.8 billion to double down on its already sizable bet on OpenAI. It also earlier in the year agreed to invest $30 billion in the ChatGPT maker by the end of December, more than any other investor has committed so far.

Market concerns about an AI bubble have been driving swings in major names, as investors fret over stretched valuations and AI's monetization prospects.

In a new twist, Google--once seen as vulnerable to OpenAI's next-generation chatbot, is "suddenly storming back, pushing Nvidia dangerously close to the cliff," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.

If the world's biggest AI players shift toward Google's homegrown chips to run their own models because they are cheaper to operate while offering comparable performance, that's a real risk for Nvidia, whose client base is nearly half made up of these same Big Tech giants, she wrote in a note.

Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Singapore, said the recent drop in SoftBank's stock reflects a "fragmenting" of the AI trade.

"Investors are no longer treating the sector as one big macro bet--they're differentiating between ecosystems," Chanana said

Stocks seen as being a part of the "Nvidia-dependent camp" are coming under pressure, and SoftBank currently fits that category given its heavy exposure to Arm and Nvidia, Chanana said.

Names aligned with Google's chips and broader supply chain are finding support, she added.

Write to Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com and Kimberley Kao at kimberley.Kao

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 26, 2025 06:00 ET (11:00 GMT)