Trump announces $100 billion in investment by Japanese bank and tech giant to create jobs in U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son on Monday jointly announced a $100 billion investment by the Japanese financial and tech giant in the U.S. over the next four years, which they said will create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence and infrastructure.

The duo made the announcement at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Japanese government and private officials, facing potential tariffs and other new trade barriers from the incoming administration, have been keen to cultivate the president-elect.

“He’s doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country since the election,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Masayoshi. “Many other people are also coming in with tremendous amounts of money.”

In his remarks, Mr. Masayoshi said his “confidence level” in the U.S. economy has increased with Mr. Trump’s victory. He added that he’s “really hoping that President Trump will bring the world into peace.”

The president-elect said the investment will ensure that artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies “are built, created and grown right here in the USA.” Mr. Trump campaigned on the promise of attracting foreign businesses and leaders to invest in the U.S. to improve the economy. 

Mr. Trump said SoftBank has the funding to make larger investments in the U.S. and said he will press the financial company “to do a little more.”

In a wide-ranging press conference following the announcement, Mr. Trump addressed several topics, from drone sightings that have panicked the East Coast to a potential pardon for New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Mr. Trump said the Biden administration knows the truth about the drones flying around New Jersey and other states along the East Coast, insisting a hostile adversary was not behind the wave of sightings. 

“The government knows what is happening. Look, our military knows where they took off from. If it’s [from] a garage, they can go right into that garage. They know where it came from and where it went,” he said.

Asked about a possible pardon for Mr. Adams, who is charged with corruption-related offenses, the president-elect said he would have to look more into the facts of the case, but added that the mayor was treated “pretty unfairly.” 

Mr. Trump also threatened to fire federal employees who don’t come back into the office and vowed to file a lawsuit challenging a Biden administration labor contract that allowed remote work for thousands of government workers. 

He said that he had a “warm spot” for TikTok and hinted that he might be open to stopping a potential ban of the social media app that has raised national security concerns due to its Chinese ownership. Mr. Trump credited TikTok with his success among young voters.

Mr. Trump also said he doesn’t expect Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to tap Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, to serve as the state’s next senator to replace Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican whom the president-elect picked to be secretary of state. 

SoftBank, a Japanese tech-investing firm, will fund the investment through various sources, including its Vision Fund, capital projects and semiconductor chipmaker Arm Holdings, where the firm is a majority owner. Some of the money could be newly raised, but it may also include previously announced funding such as SoftBank’s $1.5 billion investment in OpenAI, the tech firm that developed the chatbot ChatGPT.

During Mr. Trump’s first administration, SoftBank made a similar announcement in 2016, agreeing to invest $50 billion in the U.S. to create 50,000 jobs.

Last week, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that anyone willing to make a $1 billion investment in the U.S. “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to all environmental approvals.”

“GET READY TO ROCK!!,” he wrote in the post.