Trump announces $100 billion investment from SoftBank
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) -- President-elect Donald Trump is celebrating an announcement from Japanese technology company, SoftBank, that it plans to invest $100 billion into U.S. projects in the next four years.
Trump joined SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son for a press conference on Monday to discuss the pledge.
"He's doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country since the election," Trump said.
Son noted this $100 billion investment is double the $50 billion he promised to invest during Trump's first term.
The announcement comes after President-elect Trump said that his administration will expedite federal permits for any company that invests more than a billion dollars in the U.S.
Rodney Lake is the director for the GW Investment Institute and a finance instructor at the school. He said the SoftBank announcement seems intended to emphasize that plan.
"I think it is out of the gate, we said this, we're serious about this. We're going to make big investments possible in the U.S., and we want to attract that capital from overseas," Lake said.
He expects to see SoftBank pour a large portion of this money into the development of artificial intelligence. SoftBank hasn't given a specific spending plan, but Lake says it could go towards things like building AI data centers or electricity infrastructure.
"AI is going to require a lot of dollars, but we absolutely want to be a leader in AI," Lake said.
The announcement isn't binding; it just outlines SoftBank's intentions.
Lake says it is already impactful because it signals that the U.S. is a top destination for companies looking to invest.
"Putting this level of confidence into our economy, I think, is a very positive sign," Lake said.