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SoftBank Group Corp. (TYO:9984) shares tumbled sharply on Thursday, tracking a steep decline in Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM) after the UK-based chip designer reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the December quarter. Arm is one of SoftBank’s largest and most strategic investments, making its performance a key driver of the Japanese conglomerate’s stock price.
SoftBank stock fell as much as 7% during the session to 3,909 yen, placing it among the biggest drags on the Nikkei 225 index, which closed down about 1%. The sell-off also came amid broader weakness in global technology stocks, as investors reassessed expectations around artificial intelligence, chip demand, and the outlook for the software and semiconductor industries.
Losses in SoftBank closely followed an approximately 8% drop in Arm shares during after-hours trading in the United States. Arm posted softer-than-expected licensing revenue for the December quarter, raising concerns about near-term growth. The company earns most of its income by licensing its chip architecture to major technology players such as NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), while also collecting royalties based on chip shipments using its designs.
Further weighing on sentiment, Qualcomm issued a cautious outlook for 2026, citing rising global memory prices driven by AI-related demand. The company warned that higher component costs could pressure smartphone sales worldwide. This outlook is particularly concerning for Arm, as its chip designs are widely used across the global smartphone market, making the company sensitive to any slowdown in handset demand.
SoftBank currently owns approximately 87.1% of Arm following the chip designer’s return to public markets in 2023. Arm remains central to SoftBank’s long-term vision, especially its ambitions in artificial intelligence, semiconductor development, and next-generation computing technologies. As a result, any weakness in Arm’s financial performance or industry outlook tends to have an outsized impact on SoftBank’s valuation.
With uncertainty rising around AI investment returns, semiconductor demand, and global tech spending, investors remain cautious on SoftBank and its heavy exposure to high-growth but volatile technology assets.
