Softbank to announce $100 billion in investments in the United States

Trump and Softbank hand in hand. Japanese technology investment company SoftBank will announce Monday its intention to invest $100 billion in the United States over the next four years, a member of the president-elect's transition team told AFP Donald Trump. The CEO of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, is to unveil this project with the next American head of state at Mar-a-Lago, the hotel residence where Donald Trump now lives, according to several American media. When contacted by AFP, SoftBank did not immediately respond.

The Japanese group has already acquired significant stakes in several American companies, notably the mobile telephone operator T-Mobile, of which it controls more than 7% of the capital. SoftBank is also a shareholder in several artificial intelligence flagships, first and foremost OpenAI, into which it has already injected two billion dollars. The Tokyo company has also created a joint company with the specialist in the use of AI for medical diagnosis and treatment Tempus AI.

In December 2016, a few weeks after the first election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, Masayoshi Son had already committed to investing $50 billion in American companies. This first wave had mixed results, with some major failures such as its investment in the shared office start-up WeWork. SoftBank paid more than $16 billion to take a majority stake and then rescue this young company, which ended up filing for bankruptcy in November 2023. This safeguard procedure and the prior fall in the stock price reduced the value almost to zero. of this participation.