Winning praise from US president-elect Donald Trump for being a “great man of industry,” Japanese technology billionaire Masayoshi Son promised to invest US$50 billion in new start-ups in the US, committing to creating 50,000 new jobs.
Son is the founder and chief executive of Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp, which owns the US mobile carrier Sprint. Sprint shares initially spiked after the announcement.
“We are going to invest US$50 billion in the US and commit to create 50,000 new jobs,” Son told reporters. “We [will] invest into the new start-up companies in the United States.”
Photo: AP
The announcement is the latest instance in which Trump appears to be conducting economic policy via ad-hoc dealmaking — sometimes taking credit whether he deserves it or not.
Last week, the president-elect spoke at the Carrier Corp furnace plant in Indianapolis after the company announced plans to keep 800 jobs at the plant instead of outsourcing them to Mexico. Trump quickly claimed he had saved those positions, even though the company is still shifting more than 1,000 jobs from that factory and another Indiana plant to Mexico.
Trump on Tuesday quickly took credit for Son’s commitment, writing on Twitter: “Masa said he would never do this had we [Trump] not won the election!”
“I just came to celebrate his new job,” Son said. “Because he said he would do a lot of deregulation, I said: ‘This is great, the US will become great again.’”
Trump praised Son for being a “great man of industry” and “one of the truly great men,” adding: “See you soon” as he headed back upstairs.
Financial details about Son’s commitment and its time frame remain unclear.
As he spoke to reporters, Son held up a paper with the logos of Softbank and Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) in Taiwan, which makes iPhones for Apple Inc in China.
The paper listed the figures US$50 billion and US$7 billion and said “generate 50,000 new jobs and 50,000 new jobs over the next four years.”
Foxconn issued a statement saying it could “confirm that we are in preliminary discussions regarding a potential investment that would represent an expansion of our current US operations.”
The statement said the scope of any possible investment was undecided and details would be announced after discussions with “relevant US officials.”
In October, Softbank announced that it would establish a US$25 billion fund for technology investments that could grow to US$100 billion. Softbank said it signed an agreement with a fund run by the government of Saudi Arabia and other investors.
Japanese media said the planned US$50 billion investment would come from that fund.
Softbank spokesman Matthew Nicholson declined to say if it would provide the money for the US investments.
Softbank also owns Britain’s ARM Holdings PLC. ARM is known as an innovator in the “Internet of Things,” and in technology used in smartphones. It also sells the Pepper human-shaped companion robot for homes and businesses, and runs a solar energy business in Japan.
The company also has within its investment empire financial technology and ride-booking services.
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