SoftBank’s CEO to pledge $100 billion in U.S. investments

SoftBank Group Corp. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son is set to announce a plan to invest $100 billion in the U.S. over the next four years during a visit with President-elect Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.

Son will give details of the plan, which includes a pledge to create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and related infrastructure, later on Monday, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the news isn’t yet public. CNBC first reported details of SoftBank’s investment plans.

The Tokyo company’s representatives didn’t respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours.

The Japanese billionaire joins a number of technology executives angling to win favor from the incoming administration. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will give $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund after having previously donated to President Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and artificial intelligence startup Perplexity have also pledged $1 million apiece.

Son forged a strong relationship with Trump the last time he was president, visiting the U.S. in December 2016 and promising to invest $50 billion. SoftBank’s Vision Fund did invest in U.S. companies, but later ran into trouble as many of the investments floundered.

One question now is where SoftBank will raise the capital for its latest pledge and where it will invest. During Trump’s last term, Son was raising his $100-billion Vision Fund with money from outside investors and poured the cash into startups such as WeWork, Uber Technologies Inc. and DoorDash Inc.

Son has been stepping up efforts to increase investments directly from SoftBank itself, while signing on Vision Fund staff to help navigate such deals. The company’s finances have recovered with the initial public offering of chip design firm Arm Holdings. SoftBank still owns about 90% of Arm, which now has a market capitalization of about $160 billion.

Still, SoftBank doesn’t have the cash on hand to deliver on Son’s pledge. The company had $25 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance at the end of September.

Lee writes for Bloomberg.