President-elect Donald Trump and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son announced Monday morning at Mar-a-Lago that the company is expected to invest $100 billion in US projects over the next four years with a goal of creating 100,000 new jobs, according to two people familiar with the announcement.
This investment, first reported by CNBC, is similar to one from December 2016, when Son pledged a $50 billion investment and 50,000 jobs. Through the company’s venture capital arm, the Vision Fund, SoftBank ended up investing about $75 billion, CNN has learned. The total number of jobs created, given the Covid-19 impact on the country’s employment, is more difficult to tally.
This year’s pledge will focus specifically on artificial intelligence and AI infrastructure, including energy, data centers and chips, a source familiar with the investment said.
New presidents and presidents-elect have often held joint announcements with companies about massive US investments to promote a supposed rebirth of American industry. But their track record for success is decidedly mixed.
Softbank never made clear how many of the jobs touted in its 2016 announcement were created — and how many were a result of a new investment. For example, as part of the proposed plan, the company said it would pump $1 billion into Florida startup OneWeb. But Softbank later clarified that it had been in talks with the startup for “a long time,” SoftBank spokesman Matthew Nicholson said at the time.
Most famously, Trump in 2017 announced with Foxconn a massive $10 billion electronics factory in Wisconsin that was expected to create 13,000 jobs. But the company eventually abandoned most of its plans for the facility and the high-tech products it was set to build. The company in 2021 said it would invest just $672 million in a revised deal that would create fewer than 1,500 jobs.
Foxconn has said it invested $1 billion into the state, however, and it still has a major manufacturing site for data servers with more than 1,000 employees. But the facility Trump announced has become a Microsoft data hub that aims to train employees and manufacturers on how to best use artificial intelligence.
Source: CNN