Japan's SoftBank plans to invest $100bn in US projects over next four years

President-elect Donald Trump joined SoftBank Group chief executive Masayoshi Son to announce plans by the Japanese company to invest $100 billion in US projects over the next four years.

Mr Trump announced the planned investment on Monday at his Mar-a-Lago resort with Mr Son at his side, along with Howard Lutnick, head of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and Mr Trump’s pick for commerce secretary.

“He’s doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country,” Mr Trump said. He said that since his election, people have expressed interest in “coming in with tremendous amounts of money”.

The investments by SoftBank, Mr Trump said, are “a monumental demonstration of confidence in America’s future”.

Mr Son said he wanted to “celebrate the great victory of president Trump” and that he will “bring the world into peace again”.

“I am truly excited to make this happen,” he said.

After the president-elect noted the $100 billion was double an investment pledge Mr Son made in 2016 on the eve of Mr Trump's first administration, the technology mogul said he was doubling down. Mr Trump, appearing to joke, asked him at the microphone if he would double the investment again: “Would you make it $200 billion?”

He has in the past announced deals with companies overseas with much fanfare, although some companies in the end failed to deliver on those promised investments.

Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese company best known for producing Apple iPhones, won Mr Trump's praise after announcing plans in 2017 to build a $10 billion complex that would employ 13,000 people in a small town to the south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But Foxconn's investment has been scaled back to a fraction of that after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Monday's announcement, however, is a win for Mr Trump, who has used the weeks since the election to promote his policies, negotiate with foreign leaders and try to strike deals.

He had already threatened steep tariffs for Mexico and Canada, which prompted a visit from Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a call with Mexico's President, Claudia Sheinbaum. In a post on his Truth Social site last week, Mr Trump said anyone making a $1 billion investment in the US “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all environmental approvals”.

SoftBank was founded in 1981 by Mr Son, a brash entrepreneur who studied at the University of California, Berkeley. SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together through its capital venture fund.

The company's investment portfolio includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba and artificial intelligence company Nvidia. Earlier this year, it joined a partnership with Saudi Arabia to build a robot factory in Riyadh.

After Mr Trump won the White House the first time in 2016, he met Mr Son before taking office. Mr Son then announced plans to create 50,000 jobs and invest $50 billion in US start-ups, which Mr Trump celebrated on social media, saying it would never have happened if he had not won the election.

Not all investments have panned out. The most notorious was Softbank's massive stake in the office-sharing company WeWork which sought bankruptcy protection last year. It also invested in the failed robot pizza-making company Zume.