SoftBank jumps 10% as Asia tech stocks track Wall Street AI rally

CANADA - 2025/08/07: In this photo illustration, the SoftBank Group (Soft Bank) logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesAsian technology stocks surged Wednesday after a strong Wall Street rally overnight that saw robust corporate earnings and easing oil prices push major U.S. indexes to fresh records.Shares of SoftBank Group surged more than 10%, while chip equipment maker Tokyo Electron added 3.64%. Advantest jumped 7%, and Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia rose 6.34%. In South Korea, SK Hynix jumped 6.9%, while Samsung Electronics gained over 4%. Seoul Semiconductor popped 7.6%.Ortus Advisors' strategist Andrew Jackson said in a note on Wednesday the latest rally in U.S. semiconductor stocks reinforced the bullish outlook for Asian AI names, pointing to a surge in chipmakers and infrastructure suppliers overnight.Jackson expects SoftBank to further extend gains after Arm Holdings, its majority-owned chip design subsidiary, jumped overnight on optimism over higher AI-related data center royalties and CPU development plans.U.S. stocks had a banner day Tuesday,...