Japan’s stock market hits new record as AI boom gathers steam

Japan's stock market has achieved a historic milestone, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 index soaring above 68,000 points for the first time. This record-breaking performance reflects a global surge in investor enthusiasm, largely driven by the booming artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The Nikkei 225 saw a nearly 3 percent increase on Wednesday, continuing a remarkable year for Japanese equities, which are up approximately 33 percent in 2026. "Investor enthusiasm over the AI boom is helping drive Asian equity markets higher," noted Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ. He added that while top semiconductor companies in Taiwan and South Korea have rallied strongly due to high chip demand, Japanese markets are also benefiting, partly from a weak yen. Japanese companies central to the semiconductor supply chain spearheaded the gains. Tokyo Electron, the nation's largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer, experienced a significant jump of up to 14 percent in morning trading. Advantest, a supplier of testing equipment for the semiconductor industry, rose over 5.5 percent, while Shin-Etsu Chemical, a producer of silicon wafers, gained about 4 percent. Softbank, a major investor in AI models, chips, and data centers, saw its shares fall about 3 percent, despite having recently surpassed Toyota as Japan's largest company by market capitalization. The intense demand for AI chips has fueled record rallies worldwide, pushing key indexes in the US, Japan, and South Korea to new highs. Several memory chip makers have recently joined the elite group of companies valued at over $1 trillion.

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Investor enthusiasm over the AI boom is helping drive Asian equity markets higher.