Softbank Group Corp founder Masayoshi Son has proposed setting up a US-Japan sovereign wealth fund aimed at making large investments in technology and infrastructure, the Financial Times reported, citing three unidentified people close to the situation.
Son has discussed the plan with US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, although it has not been formally proposed, the report said.
The joint fund would likely need about US$300 billion in initial capital, with significant leverage, to be effective, one person told the Financial Times.
Photo: Bloomberg
The fund would be jointly owned and run by the US Department of the Treasury and the Japanese Ministry of Finance, with each holding a significant stake, the report said.
The fund could also be opened to limited partner investors, potentially offering retail investors in Japan and the US a chance to participate.
Bessent has been looking for revenue streams for the US Treasury that do not involve raising taxes, and the fund could potentially provide a solution, a person briefed on the situation told the newspaper.
However, Bessent on Friday said US President Donald Trump paused plans to create a sovereign wealth fund as the president prioritizes paying down the national debt.
“I think the president has decided it’s on pause while we work on everything else that we’re doing now,” Bessent said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. “He said the other day that we’ll probably spend more time paying down debt. He is laser-focused on paying down debt.”
Trump in February ordered a plan to create one of the biggest such funds in the world, suggesting it could be backed by monetizing government assets and used for strategic investments including critical minerals projects or stakes in companies such as TikTok.
Bessent at the time said that the fund could be up and running in 12 months.
However, the ambition has slid down the list of priorities after running into legal, financial and political realities. Instead, the administration is pivoting to a potentially simpler and limited investment vehicle using existing agencies that would not need congressional approval.
Bessent and US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who Trump tasked with coming up with the proposal within 90 days, submitted their ideas earlier this month, but White House officials were not satisfied and a final plan was not presented to Trump for approval, people familiar with the situation said.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based