Top stories for the morning: US and Iran argue, SoftBank beats Toyota, Nvidia battles Intel

SoftBank became Japan's most valuable company, overtaking Toyota, thanks to growing investor interest in OpenAI, Arm and semiconductors. Nvidia announced that it will enter the PC processor market with a new N1X chip, while at the same time ramping up production of Vera server CPUs for AI infrastructure. These and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of June 1.

The U.S. and Iran over the weekend exchanged revisions to a draft agreement to extend the ceasefire and open the Strait of Hormuz, but the sides are still far from a final compromise, Bloomberg writes. U.S. President Donald Trump insists on Tehran's renunciation of nuclear weapons, while Iran seeks greater authority to control navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and access to frozen assets.

At the same time, Israel has expanded its military operation in Lebanon against Hezbollah, jeopardizing the fragile truce in the region. Iran also continues missile strikes against U.S. facilities in the Middle East, and Washington is strengthening its control over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Experts warn that even a possible deal will not address the fundamental causes of the conflict and may prove to be only a temporary respite.

Oil went up again after Israel's decision to expand its military operation in Lebanon, which increased investors' concerns about the breakdown of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on the extension of the ceasefire, writes CNBC. Brent rose 2% to $93 per barrel, while WTI rose 2.6% to $89.6 per barrel amid the risk of further escalation in the Middle East.

Additional uncertainty was introduced by statements of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the expansion of the offensive against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. At the same time, analysts at Goldman Sachs kept the forecast for Brent at the end of 2026 at $90 per barrel, warning that price growth due to supply disruptions may be limited by weak demand: data on China and Western Europe indicate a potential decline in global oil consumption by about 2 million barrels per day.

Nvidia has unveiled its first processor for personal computers and thus entered the CPU market, which has been dominated for decades by Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Apple, CNBC writes. The new N1X chip, co-developed with Microsoft and MediaTek, will be part of the RTX Spark platform and will appear in more than 30 laptop models and 10 desktops from Microsoft, Dell, HP, Asus, Lenovo and MSI in the fall. According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the company intends to "reinvent the PC."

At the same time, Nvidia started mass production of Vera server processors for data centers, expecting to turn this area into a new business growth driver. The company claims that Vera provides up to 1.8 times the performance of today's x86 processors with higher power efficiency. Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Dell, Oracle and CoreWeave have already been named among the first customers for the new chips, the channel points out.

SoftBank has overtaken Toyota in market capitalization to become Japan's most valuable public company for the first time amid the hype surrounding artificial intelligence, the Financial Times reports. Shares of Masaesi Son's holding company have risen nearly 73% since the beginning of the year, with capitalization exceeding ¥46 trillion ($288 billion) after announcing plans to invest up to €75 billion in a network of AI computing clusters in France. At the same time, the Nikkei 225 index hit an all-time high, topping 67,000 points and adding nearly 30% YTD.

Investors are betting on SoftBank's assets related to OpenAI and chip developer Arm, as well as on the growing demand for artificial intelligence technologies and semiconductors, the newspaper points out. Nomura analysts expect the Nikkei to rise further to 68,000 points by the end of 2026, although they warn that the sustainability of the boom in the AI sector remains to be tested.

Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to buy one of the largest U.S. real estate developers Taylor Morrison Home for $6.8 billion, offering shareholders $72.50 per share - 24% above the market price, writes CNBC. Including debt, the company is valued at about $8.5 billion. The deal will be one of the first major investments under new CEO Greg Abel, who succeeds Warren Buffett in early 2026.

The purchase reflects Berkshire's bet on a recovery in the U.S. housing market after years of pressure from high mortgage rates and real estate affordability problems. The holding company already owns homebuilder Clayton Homes, construction assets and brokerage Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. Investors believe the company is counting on accumulated demand for housing and a possible turnaround in the housing cycle in the coming years.

- Japan's broad Topix index was down 0.6 percent on June 1, while the Nikkei 225 was up 0.6 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 0.9 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index was down 0.6 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 5.5%, while the Kosdaq was down 2.7%.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.1 percent.

- S&P 500 futures were up 0.3 percent, Nasdaq Composite futures were up 0.6 percent and Dow Jones Industrial Average exchange-traded contracts were up 0.1 percent.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor