SoftBank shares jump after Arm's stock surges on better guidance

By Kosaku Narioka

SoftBank Group shares rose sharply after U.S.-listed shares of chip-designer unit Arm Holdings surged overnight following a better-than anticipated outlook.

Shares of SoftBank Group (JP:9984) were recently 8.3% higher at 7,168 yen after rising as much as 9.6% earlier Thursday morning.

The British chip designer's stock (ARM) climbed by 20% in after-hours trading, following the company's forecast of $850 million to $900 million of sales in its current quarter. That beat forecasts of $779 million in a FactSet analyst survey.

The company raised its annual sales guidance from as much as $3.08 billion to as much as $3.21 billion.

Arm is cashing in on surging investments in AI and the chips that underpin the technology. While the company's circuits are dominant in mobile phones, it is making growing inroads in chips that go into data centers where AI computations are made.

SoftBank Group is scheduled to report its third-quarter results later Thursday. The Japanese technology investment company is expected to post net profit of Y247.25 billion ($1.67 billion) for the three months ended Dec. 31, according to a poll of analysts by Quick.

That would be its first quarterly profit after four consecutive quarters of losses and compares with a net loss of Y783.415 billion in the year-earlier period.

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02-07-24 2058ET

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