The head of Japan’s SoftBank is set to announce plans on Monday to invest $100 billion in the United States over the next four years, a spokesperson for US President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team told AFP.
SoftBank’s billionaire chief executive Masayoshi Son and Trump are expected to jointly announce the planned investment at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, according to US media reports.
The money committed by the Japanese behemoth could create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, the Wall Street Journal reported.
SoftBank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
– Second commitment –
The announcement from Son, 67, would be around double the amount he committed SoftBank to in December 2016, shortly before Trump began his first term as US president.
The Japanese firm ultimately parted with close to $100 billion through its Vision Fund, with much of the money supplied by sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Son made his name with successful early investments in Chinese ecommerce titan Alibaba and internet pioneer Yahoo, but has also bet on catastrophic failures such as WeWork.
He has repeatedly said that “artificial superintelligence” will arrive in a decade, bringing new inventions, new medicine, new knowledge and new ways to invest.
Just last month, CNBC reported that ChatGPT creator OpenAI will enable its employees to sell shares worth roughly $1.5 billion to SoftBank.
The purchases allow will SoftBank to increase its stake in OpenAI and permit current and former OpenAI employees to cash out their shares, two anonymous sources told the US media outlet.
A person familiar with the matter told AFP that the report was correct.
SoftBank Group posted a bumper second-quarter net profit last month, returning to the black after net losses in the first quarter and the previous financial year.
– Boost for Trump –
Son’s announcement would be a boost to the incoming Trump adminstration, which takes office on January 20, 2025.
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged to boost the US economy by cutting red tape and fast-tracking investments, including into the oil and gas sector.
But analysts have voiced concerns that some of Trump’s stated objectives, such as slapping new tariffs on US imports and deporting millions of undocumented workers, could hurt growth and be inflationary.
This could force the US Federal Reserve to ease the pace of interest rate cuts, potentially keeping rates higher for longer.
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