Softbank woos Donald Trump $100 billion AI investment

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Japanese investment giant Softbank (SFTBY+0.42%) reportedly plans to announce a $100 billion investment in the U.S. during its CEO’s visit with President-elect Donald Trump.

CNBC, citing unnamed sources familiar with the plans, reports that the investments will primarily focus on artificial intelligence and related support infrastructure, including data centers and semiconductor chip production. The money will be invested before the end of Trump’s second term in office and aims to create 100,000 jobs. CNBC reports that some of the money could come from Softbank’s Vision Fund, capital projects, or Arm Holdings, a chipmaker that is majority-owned by Softbank.

It also may not be newly-raised funding, and may include some investments were previously announced, including the firm’s $1.5 billion investment in OpenAI.

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Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son has become a major champion of AI, even asking OpenAI’s ChatGPT for investment advice and comparing doubters of the tech to goldfish who will be “left behind.” In May, The Financial Times reported that Softbank was prepared to commit close to $9 billion a year in AI investments. Earlier that month, it led a $1 billion funding round for self-driving car startup Wayve.

The $100 billion investment would be a follow-up to Softbank’s 2016 announcement that it would invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 new jobs. At the time, Trump claimed that the deal wouldn’t have happened if his Democratic rival had won the presidential election.

In June 2018, while speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Foxconn factory in Wisconsin, Trump claimed that Softbank’s investments “turned out to be $72 billion so far.” More than a year later, in December 2019, Softbank told Forbes that the Vision Fund and other vehicles had poured $47 billion into the U.S. economy by investing in dozens of companies, including DoorDash (DASH-0.56%).

Almost half of its investments at the time went to co-working startup WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023 after a failed public launch. By the time it filed for Chapter 11, WeWork’s value had sunk from a $47 billion peak to just $45 million. It exited bankruptcy earlier this year.