SoftBank CEO, Trump announce $100b investment in US projects, focusing on AI

In a surprise announcement made at Mar-a-Lago on Monday, President-elect Donald Trump and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son revealed a major investment commitment. 

SoftBank plans to invest $100 billion in US projects over the next four years, with the goal of creating 100,000 new jobs. The investment will specifically target advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), including infrastructure such as energy, data centres, and semiconductor chips.

This pledge echoes SoftBank's earlier $50 billion commitment in December 2016, which promised to create 50,000 jobs. That investment ended up totalling $75 billion, although the number of jobs created, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on employment, remains unclear.

Historically, joint announcements between new administrations and companies about large-scale US investments have been aimed at revitalizing American industry, though their success has been mixed. For instance, SoftBank’s 2016 pledge to invest $1 billion into Florida-based startup OneWeb was later clarified as being part of long-standing negotiations.

Similarly, President Trump's 2017 announcement of a $10 billion Foxconn electronics factory in Wisconsin, expected to create 13,000 jobs, ultimately resulted in a much smaller $672 million investment and fewer than 1,500 jobs. 

While Foxconn still operates a major manufacturing site in the state, the original plan was scaled back, and the facility has shifted focus to data servers and AI training under a partnership with Microsoft.

Despite these mixed results, the latest SoftBank commitment highlights a continued focus on high-tech industries like AI, which many see as a key driver of future economic growth in the US.