SoftBank Group shares rose sharply after US-listed shares of chip design unit Arm Holdings rose overnight following a better-than-expected outlook.
Softbank Group shares 9984,
It recently rose 8.3% to 7,168 yen after rising 9.6% earlier Thursday morning.
British chip designer ARM stock,
It rose 20% in after-hours trading, following the company's forecast of sales of $850 million to $900 million in the current quarter. That exceeded expectations of $779 million in a FactSet survey.
The company raised its annual sales guidance from $3.08 billion to $3.21 billion.
Arm is benefiting from increased investments in artificial intelligence and the chips that support this technology. While the company's circuits are dominant in mobile phones, it is making increasing inroads into chips that go into data centers where AI calculations are performed.
SoftBank Group is scheduled to announce third-quarter results later Thursday. The Japanese technology investment firm is expected to post net profit of 247.25 billion yen ($1.67 billion) for the three months ending Dec. 31, according to a survey of analysts conducted by Quick.
This would be its first quarterly profit after four consecutive quarters of losses and compares to a net loss of 783.415 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.
