Japanese telecommunications and IT operator SoftBank has announced plans to invest $100 billion in the US.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on December 16, Trump said the investment would “ensure that artificial intelligence (AI), emerging technologies, and other industries of tomorrow are built created, and grown right here in the USA.”
According to Trump, the investment would lead to the creation of 100,000 new jobs in the country, predominately in the artificial intelligence industry.
SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son has previously made large-scale investment commitments in the US off the back of Trump winning a presidential election. In 2016, Son announced a $50 billion SoftBank investment in the US, alongside a similar pledge to create 50,000 jobs in the country.
Speaking at Mar-a-Lago with Trump on Monday, Son said the investment was double the company’s previous pledge because “President Trump is a double down president.”
Trump has previously claimed that once he takes office, companies that invest more than $1 billion in the US would “receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals.”
However, as reported by Reuters, it’s unclear if the new jobs pledged back in 2016 ever came to fruition and questions have been raised about how SoftBank, which had $29 billion in cash on its balance sheet according to its September earnings report, might fund the investment.
It previously raised money for a Vision Fund from Saudi Arabia, Apple, and others, to invest in companies like WeWork, Uber, and DoorDash.
Reports first surfaced in February 2024 that Son was looking to raise $100 billion for an AI chip venture dubbed Izanagi to compete with Nvidia. In response to the investment announcement made by SoftBank at Mar-a-Lago, Reuters quoted one source familiar with the matter who said Son would likely leverage chip design company Arm as an investment vehicle.
SoftBank bought the British chip designer for $32 billion in 2016 and retained a controlling interest in the company when it re-floated on the stock market last year. The company also acquired struggling British AI chip designer Graphcore in July 2024 for an unconfirmed amount.
The New York Times reports that the new fund is expected to go to energy projects, data centers and chips. The company is also considering another investment in OpenAI.
Masayoshi Son is not the only tech CEO to have flashed the cash at Trump since his re-election. Meta, OpenAI, Perplexity, and Amazon are reported to have donated $1 million to the President-elect’s inaugural fund this month, with Amazon also planning to stream Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Prime Video.
