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

Japan’s stock market has hit an all-time high as a global buying frenzy driven by AI shows no signs of slowing down.

The Nikkei 225 rose nearly 3 percent on Wednesday, lifting the benchmark index above 68,000 for the first time.

The latest surge continues a banner year for Japan’s stock market, which is up nearly 33 percent so far in 2026.

“Investor enthusiasm over the AI boom is helping drive Asian equity markets higher,” Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ, told Al Jazeera.

“While strong demand for high-end chips has seen the top semiconductor companies in Taiwan and South Korea rally strongly, this is also benefiting Japanese markets, which are also getting some tailwind from a weak yen.”

Japanese firms involved in the semiconductor business led the gains.

Tokyo Electron, Japan’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, soared as much as 14 percent in morning trading.

Advantest, which supplies testing equipment to the semiconductor industry, rose more than 5.5 percent.

Shin-Etsu Chemical, a supplier of silicon wafers used in integrated circuits, gained about 4 percent.

Softbank, which is heavily invested in AI models, chips and data centers, fell about 3 percent, after overtaking auto giant Toyota on Monday to become Japan’s biggest company by market capitalisation.

Ferocious demand for AI chips has been driving record-breaking rallies in stock markets across the globe, taking key indexes in the US, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan to record highs.

During the past month, three memory chip makers – South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, and US-based Micron – entered the elite club of firms with a market capitalistion of at least $1 trillion.

Only 17 companies have hit the milestone, all but five of which are based in the United States.

Despite concerns about the sustainability of the sky-high valuations in the sector among some investors, tech companies are continuing to commit huge sums to AI-related infrastructure.

US tech giants are expected to spend about $800bn on AI-related capital investment in 2026, according to Goldman Sachs.

Google parent company Alphabet on Monday became the latest Silicon Valley giant to outline its AI-related investment plans, announcing that it would sell $80bn worth of shares to help fund expected capital expenditures of $180-190bn in 2026.