SoftBank Shares Plunge 13%, Completely Erasing Last Week's Gains as OpenAI 2026 IPO Hopes Fade

TradingKey - OpenAI won't IPO in 2026, causing SoftBank's stock price to plunge 12% and completely erase last week's gains.

On Monday (September 14), SoftBank Group (TSE: 9984) saw its share price suffer a heavy blow after the market opened today, with intraday losses extending to 13% at one point and approaching the 5,600 yen ($36.36) mark during morning trading, erasing last week's strong gains in one fell swoop. As of press time, SoftBank's stock decline narrowed to around 10%, trading at 5,853 yen.

Last Monday (September 7), SoftBank's share price jumped higher from near 5,600 yen and continued to rally, surging to 6,900 yen on September 9 for a gain of 23%. Over the following two days, SoftBank's stock price pulled back somewhat, ultimately closing near 6,500 yen last Friday, but still significantly outperforming the Nikkei 225 Index's decline over the same period.

According to market reports, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman officially ruled out a 2026 listing over the weekend, stating that "OpenAI will not go public in 2026." OpenAI's delayed listing, coupled with its agreement in an interview with Fortune last Friday to coordinate a slower pace of development, has deepened Wall Street's concerns over the lengthened monetization cycle for global tech giants' massive capital expenditures (CapEx) in AI infrastructure.

As a core peripheral investment giant in OpenAI, SoftBank previously carried high market expectations for OpenAI to go public in 2026, using the occasion to revalue Vision Fund's holdings and narrow the group's conglomerate discount. Now, with OpenAI postponing its listing—and Sam Altman even stating bluntly that "if AI threatens human survival, I would rather destroy the IPO"—market expectations have been directly doused. Notably, reports indicate that SoftBank added another $1.87 billion on top of its initial $10 billion investment target, further dealing a heavy blow to bullish sentiment.

From a technical analysis perspective, SoftBank decisively broke below the 6,000 mark today, falling below the midline formed by the ascending channel. This level will shift from support to resistance, placing pressure on its stock price upside. As Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike expectations mount, SoftBank's share price may continue to test the 5,000 yen mark in the short term, with very little chance of reversing the decline unless the Fed unexpectedly cuts rates this week (September 15-16).

SoftBank stock price chart, Source: TradingView