During Monday’s joint appearance with the president-elect Donald Trump, SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi’s son announced plans to invest $100 billion in American businesses and create at least 100,000 latest jobs in the country.
This short press event was full of mutual praise and relatively few details about the investment.
Trump began by praising Son as “one of the most successful investors in the world” and called the commitment a “monumental show of confidence in America’s future.” He said the investment will help be sure that artificial intelligence and other “industries of tomorrow” are built and developed in the US
Son returned the praise, saying he was celebrating Trump’s election victory and that his “confidence level in the U.S. economy has increased tremendously because of his victory.”
He added that he hoped that “President Trump will bring peace to the world again.”
SoftBank’s commitment is to repeat execution – although on a twice as large scale – of, among others: Agreement from 2016 The son was created after meeting Trump after his first election victory. SoftBank then agreed to invest $50 billion in the US with the goal of creating 50,000 jobs.
SoftBank began significantly scaling up its startup investing activities in 2017 with a groundbreaking solution SoftBank Vision Fund. The fund’s goal was to invest $100 million in start-ups around the world. A few years later, SoftBank followed suit Vision Fund II.
Mixed results
As we have written before, SoftBank’s investments are a mix of hits and misses, including many iconic names. He has led rounds for many startups that have played a transformative role in their industries, including: Uber, Loose AND DoorDash. However, SoftBank also invested capital in highly overrated companies that have since closed or filed for bankruptcy, including: WeWork, juice AND Katera.
This time, Son is making his commitment at a time when investment in U.S. startups stays well below its 2021 peak. But funding is bottoming out, largely fueled by investor interest in artificial intelligence startups .
Trump, concluding the joint speech, urged Son to double his planned investment to $200 billion. The son didn’t promise that he would do it, but he didn’t rule it out either, saying that he would “try to make it happen.”