Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.

Japan's top financial regulators are pushing for the creation of a blockchain-based settlement infrastructure for stocks and government bonds. The Financial Services Agency (FSA), the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will collaborate with local financial institutions starting this summer to develop a plan, which is expected to be completed by early 2027 and could be fully operational in the early 2030s. The main goal is to accelerate settlement from two days to real-time by tokenizing the current account deposits that banks hold at the BOJ on a blockchain. On the same day, about 40 regional and online banks announced a proof-of-concept project for interbank transfers using tokenized deposits, which will begin within this month. This move builds on the July amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), which classified about 105 cryptocurrencies as financial instruments and set an effective tax rate of approximately 20% on crypto, as well as the establishment of a dedicated crypto and stablecoin division at the FSA and a pilot project by three major banks: Mizuho Bank, MUFG, and SMBC.

United Launch Alliance plans to raise approximately $500 million through a private bond placement to refinance existing debt. The rocket joint venture, owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, provides launch services for the US military and commercial customers including Amazon. US Bancorp, Mizuho Financial Group, and Wells Fargo are reportedly arranging the transaction. The bonds will be structured as a true private placement, sold directly to institutional investors rather than registered in public markets.

The combined net profit of five major Japanese banking groups in the April–June 2026 quarter rose 42.3% year-on-year to 1.9564 trillion yen. The Bank of Japan's rate hikes improved lending margins, while rising stock prices boosted fee income from investment trust sales and other sources. By bank, net profit rose 48.2% at Mitsubishi UFJ, 33.0% at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, 45.5% at Mizuho Financial Group, 56.6% at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group, and 14.2% at Resona Holdings. All except Resona posted record April–June profits. For the full year ending March 2027, Mizuho and Resona raised their forecasts following the additional rate hike in June, while the other three banks kept theirs unchanged.

Mizuho pushed back on concerns that Chinese memory maker CXMT will flood the DRAM market and crush pricing, telling investors the fear is overblown. TMT sector specialist Jordan Klein said the firm's Japan team estimated CXMT's DRAM bit supply growth will rise only 13% year over year in 2027, below the broader industry's 21%, leaving the company at roughly 8% of global share. That would put CXMT's 2026-2028 compound annual growth rate at 24%, in line with the overall DRAM industry, which Mizuho said points to no reckless supply expansion to try and take share with aggressive pricing. The firm cited constraints including Applied Materials and Lam Research suspending tool servicing on CXMT's existing equipment in March 2026, aging equipment due for a refresh, yield pressure from node transitions during 2027, and a lack of EUV lithography tools as a major constraint. Klein added that the Chinese government wants CXMT to allocate much more capacity toward high-bandwidth memory rather than conventional DRAM, and the company lags big time in HBM and is not selling to non-China hyperscalers, further limiting its impact on global pricing dynamics.

Mizuho Financial Group announced it will expand its share buyback program. The previous limit of 25 million shares and 100 billion yen has been raised to 35 million shares and 200 billion yen, with the repurchase period running from May 18, 2026, to September 30, 2026. If the maximum number of shares is acquired, the ratio to total outstanding shares excluding treasury stock will be 1.4 percent. The company also announced plans to cancel all repurchased shares on October 23, 2026.

Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank will raise yen time deposit rates from August 3. Mizuho Bank will increase the one-year rate by 0.1 percentage point to 0.5 percent, and the five-year rate by 0.125 percentage point to 0.825 percent, with hikes ranging from 0.1 to 0.175 percentage point depending on the term. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank will raise the one-year rate by 0.1 percentage point to 0.525 percent, with increases of 0.1 to 0.3 percentage point depending on the term. Other major banks are expected to follow suit soon.

According to disclosures made on July 30, Nippon Steel Solutions raised its first-half net profit forecast by 6 percent, adding to its record-high profit outlook, and also increased its full-year forecast. Japan Tobacco raised its current-term net profit forecast by 13 percent, adding to its record-high profit outlook, and increased its dividend by 30 yen. Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings swung to a first-half net profit and announced a share buyback of up to 14 million shares, representing 8.6 percent of outstanding shares excluding treasury stock, with a maximum value of 400 billion yen. Elsewhere, Sekisui Jushi raised its current-term net profit forecast by 23 percent, increased its dividend by 18 yen, and expanded its share buyback amount from 2.7 billion yen to 3 billion yen. Mizuho Financial Group raised its current-term net profit forecast by 8 percent, adding to its record-high profit outlook, and expanded its share buyback program from the current 25 million shares and 100 billion yen to 35 million shares and 200 billion yen. On the other hand, negative factors also emerged, such as Nihon M&A Center Holdings reporting an 11 percent decline in ordinary profit for the April-June quarter, Kagome lowering its current-term net profit forecast by 22 percent, and Osaka Steel revising its first-half ordinary profit forecast to a loss and maintaining a previously undecided first-half dividend at zero.

Mizuho Financial Group reported first-quarter GAAP earnings per share of ¥173.53 and revenue of ¥2520.86 billion, an 18.3% increase year-over-year. The company also revised its full-year outlook. The results were disclosed in a press release on the company's investor relations website.

Mizuho Financial Group on the 30th revised upward its consolidated net profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027 to 1.4 trillion yen, from the previous 1.3 trillion yen. Consolidated net profit for the April–June quarter of 2026 rose 45.5 percent year-on-year to 422.9 billion yen. According to the consensus estimate of 12 analysts compiled by IBES, the average forecast for full-year consolidated net profit for the fiscal year ending March 2027 is 1.387 trillion yen.

Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank, Resona Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank began offering preferential interest rates on housing loans, renovation loans, and unsecured loans for victims of the earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture on the 29th. Rates will be reduced upon submission of a disaster victim certificate, and affected businesses will also receive low-interest financing. The Kyushu Local Finance Bureau and the Bank of Japan's Kumamoto Branch have requested that financial institutions allow withdrawals based on identity verification even if passbooks or seals have been lost, and each bank plans to respond flexibly. The Life Insurance Association of Japan and the General Insurance Association of Japan announced that premium payment grace periods will be extended by up to six months, and insurance claim procedures will be simplified.

Mizuho Financial Group has launched UPSIDER BANK by MIZUHO, a comprehensive financial service for mid-sized and small businesses that leverages AI. The service features same-day account opening at the earliest, a flat 100 yen fee for transfers to other banks, and AI-based credit assessment enabling corporate card credit lines of up to 1 billion yen. It also offers operational efficiency improvements and specialist matching. Mizuho FG President Masahiro Kihara positioned supporting the growth of mid-sized and small enterprises as the group's mission and expressed confidence in the partnership with startup UPSIDER. The group targets cumulative online loan executions of 500 billion yen and cumulative account acquisitions of 100,000 by fiscal 2030. Mega banks have seen repeated failures in lending to mid-sized and small businesses, and attention is focused on whether AI technology can rewrite that history.

Nvidia is widening its reach across Japan's largest industries. During a visit to Tokyo, CEO Jensen Huang announced partnerships covering robotics, health care, banking, manufacturing, automobiles, quantum computing and gaming. Japanese companies including FANUC, Sony, Hitachi, Kubota and SoftBank plan to work with Nvidia on physical AI models for robots and industrial systems. In health care, several drugmakers are using Nvidia's BioNeMo platform for drug discovery, while Canon and Fujifilm introduced medical imaging systems built with Nvidia technology. Toyota is expanding its work with Nvidia on driver-assistance software, factory simulations and traffic systems, Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui are building AI infrastructure for banking, and RIKEN is preparing Blackwell-powered supercomputers for scientific and quantum research.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a broad slate of AI products, partnerships, and customer deployments at the company's Japan AI event in Tokyo on July 15. The announcements spanned physical AI, healthcare, financial services, quantum computing, automotive, manufacturing, and gaming, highlighting Nvidia's push to position its technologies at the forefront of Japan's next-generation AI infrastructure. In physical AI and robotics, Nvidia launched Cosmos 3 Edge for on-device vision reasoning, and companies including FANUC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kubota, NEC, SoftBank, Sony Group, and Yaskawa Electric plan to join the Nvidia Cosmos Coalition to develop open physical AI models. In healthcare, Astellas Pharma, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo, Ono Pharmaceutical, and Takeda Pharmaceutical are deploying Nvidia BioNeMo for AI-powered drug discovery, while Canon and Fujifilm introduced Nvidia-powered next-generation CT systems, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries is advancing AI-enabled surgical and hospital robots. In financial services, Mizuho Financial plans Japan's largest on-premises AI factory for banking, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial has deployed an AI factory through Japan Research Institute, and Rakuten Bank is developing AI transaction foundation models using Nvidia Agent Toolkit. Huang emphasized that the next wave of AI will be physical AI—robots, factories, vehicles, and industrial systems that can perceive, reason, and act in the real world—and said Japan's leadership in robotics, manufacturing, and precision engineering positions it to play a leading role in this transition.

Realty Income has closed on the recast and expansion of its multicurrency unsecured revolving credit facilities to $5.5 billion, up from the prior $4.0 billion capacity, and also expanded its global commercial paper programs to a combined $5.5 billion, up from $3.0 billion. The revolving credit facilities are split into two $2.75 billion tranches maturing in April 2029 and July 2030, with an accordion feature allowing an increase to $6.5 billion. The company's current credit ratings provide for a borrowing rate of 67.5 basis points over SOFR and a facility fee of 12.5 basis points, resulting in all-in drawn pricing of 80 basis points over SOFR, a reduction of 5 basis points from the prior facilities. The commercial paper programs consist of a $2.75 billion U.S. program and a $2.75 billion European program, with the revolving credit facilities serving as a liquidity backstop. A total of 26 lenders are participating, with Wells Fargo as administrative agent and Wells Fargo Securities, JPMorgan Chase, BofA Securities, Mizuho, and TD Bank as joint bookrunners.

The consensus forecast for Mizuho Financial Group's ordinary profit for the March 2027 fiscal year rose 1.5% from the previous week's 1.914317 trillion yen to 1.942865 trillion yen. Compared to the prior-year result, the forecast was revised upward from a 21.7% increase to a 23.5% increase. The rating consensus remains unchanged at 4.7.

SoftBank Group has reopened talks with a consortium of lenders for a $10 billion loan backed by its stake in OpenAI, after earlier attempts stalled over concerns about valuing private companies. To make lenders more comfortable, SoftBank is offering to guarantee repayment, giving banks recourse if the OpenAI shares pledged as collateral lose value. The lending consortium is expected to include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Mizuho Financial Group. The financing, known as a margin loan, is part of SoftBank's efforts to fund its artificial intelligence investment strategy, which has included more than $60 billion in commitments to OpenAI and related infrastructure projects.

Mizuho Bank and Rakuten Bank have entered into a strategic capital and business alliance to create a new credit model combining megabank corporate expertise with digital bank retail reach. As part of the capital alliance, Mizuho Bank will acquire 23,559,673 Class A shares of Rakuten Bank, which will be converted into common shares during a broader reorganization of Rakuten's FinTech business. The partnership aims to optimize domestic fund circulation by connecting Mizuho's corporate clients' financing needs with Rakuten Bank's retail deposit base, and includes plans for Rakuten Bank to acquire corporate loans originated by Mizuho. The banks will also collaborate on working capital for small businesses, housing loan efficiency, and backup cash disbursement protocols for Rakuten Bank during crises.