Softbank to invest $100 bn in US in next 4 years, says CEO Son after meeting Trump

Japanese internet and telecommunications giant Softbank will invest $100 billion in the United States over the next four years, said CEO Masayoshi Son.

After their meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Monday (December 16), Son and US President-elect Donald Trump jointly announced that the $100 billion investment would create around 100,000 jobs focussed on artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies and related infrastructure, such as data centers, semiconductors, and energy, according to Bloomberg.

However, there are doubts whether Son can fulfil his pledge as Softbank only has $30 billion of cash on hand.

In Trump’s previous term (2017-21) as well, Son had pledged $100 billion investment through Softbank Vision Fund, a venture capital fund infamous for pouring money into flop businesses, such as workspace company WeWork, construction start-up Katerra, and robot pizza-delivery company Zume. With previous failures still fresh in investors’ mind, it remains to be seen how Son will raise funds for his fresh pledge.

‘Demonstration of confidence in America’s future’

Trump boasted that Son’s investment pledge was a show of confidence in his election victory.

Trump said that Son’s investment pledge was a show of “demonstration of confidence in America’s future”.

“He’s doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country since the election,” said Trump.

Son echoed Trump and said that his confidence in the US economy had increased following Trump’s victory.

Son said, “I’m very, very excited. I would really like to celebrate the great victory of President Trump and my confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased with his victory.”

Son’s investment pledge comes at a time when Softbank has been eager to shore up investments in AI and emerging technologies, but is uncertain how the pledge would materialise. While companies have often made such pledges to appease Trump, they have found the implementation to be hard.

For example, in 2018, electronics major Foxconn pledged to invest $10 million in the United States and around 13,000 jobs. In the end, the company had to scale down its investment to around $630 million.