SoftBank shares slide over 8% amid renewed pressure on AI-linked stocks (www.cnbc.com)

SoftBank Group shares plunged more than 8% on Friday as a renewed sell-off in AI-linked stocks rippled through markets. The decline followed a volatile week for the conglomerate—after a 10% drop on Wednesday (its worst since April) and a near 3% rebound the prior session—reflecting investor nervousness about lofty AI valuations. The sell-off extended to other Japanese tech names: semiconductor test-equipment maker Advantest fell over 6%, chipmaker Renesas nearly 4%, Tokyo Electron about 1.5%, and South Korea’s SK Hynix roughly 0.5%. U.S. AI-related stocks also weakened overnight, with Qualcomm down ~4% (despite strong quarterly results and a warning it could lose future Apple business), AMD off ~7%, Palantir and Oracle down ~7% and ~3%, and broader declines at Nvidia and Meta. The move matters because SoftBank’s portfolio—spanning AI infrastructure, semiconductors, and applications via its Vision Fund and other stakes—acts as a bellwether for investor appetite in AI risk assets. A hit to SoftBank and chip-equipment names signals potential cooling of capital flows into hardware and cloud infrastructure that underpin model training and deployment, and could delay M&A, fundraising, or expansion plans in the AI supply chain. The episode underscores how valuation concerns and corporate-specific risks (e.g., vendor relationships like Qualcomm’s with Apple) can quickly transmit through the interconnected AI ecosystem. This is breaking — updates may follow.