Riding the AI investment boom, SoftBank's market value is rapidly catching up to Japan's largest company, Toyota.

SoftBank Group's success in AI-related investments is helping it narrow the gap in market value with Japan's largest companies. The tech investment company's market value surpassed Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in late September, making it the second largest publicly traded company in Japan. On Monday, its market value reached 31.8 trillion yen, challenging the top position held by Toyota. By late October, the gap between SoftBank and Toyota's market values had narrowed to 10 trillion yen, the first time in over four years. SoftBank Group's stock price has surged by 142% this year, mainly due to its increased valuation of investments in OpenAI in the United States, as well as the inflow of funds into AI-related stocks globally. Data shows that SoftBank's stock price increase contributed to a 24% rise in the Nikkei 225 index. Meanwhile, Toyota's stock price fell by 0.5% during the same period due to uncertainty surrounding US tariffs.