SoftBank announces $100 billion investment in U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure

Author: Tristan Greene, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

On December 16, Masayoshi Son, CEO of Japanese investment holding company Softbank Group, announced that his company will invest at least US$100 billion in the United States to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The announcement was made at President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. According to Trump, the partnership will create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence.

During the announcement, Son and Trump joked with each other that the president-elect was trying to double the initial amount. Son laughed and called Trump a "great negotiator" and promised to "work hard to achieve this goal."

Trump 2.0

President-elect Trump and Son have a long-standing relationship, with the two signing a similar partnership in 2016 during Trump's first administration.

At that time, SoftBank Group pledged to provide the United States with $50 billion for infrastructure construction and promised to create 50,000 new jobs. It's unclear if any jobs were created, but a CNBC report indicated funds were disbursed in 2020.

At the same time, SoftBank is likely to face far fewer restrictions on foreign trade and investment markets in the United States under the second Trump administration than it did just a few years ago. Trump has vowed to cut and/or consolidate banking regulators and pledged to quickly advance any investment over $1 trillion to include environmental impact regulation.

SoftBank’s AI ambitions

Son's partnership with Trump comes amid a renaissance for the company. The company lost 99% of its value when the dot-com bubble burst from 2000 to 2002, but is now on the rise again.

Analysts attribute much of this recovery to the company's strategic investments in artificial intelligence, including the $1.5 billion acquisition of ChatGPT maker OpenAI in November 2024.

The recent growth comes despite a series of failures related to the Vision investment arm, including the closure of WeWork, which cost the company more than $14 billion.

SoftBank had about $175 billion in assets and equivalents at the end of 2024, but it 's unclear how much of that is available for immediate investment. According to Trump and Son, SoftBank Group will pay the entire $100 billion before the end of 2028.