CEO of Japanese telecom SoftBank says company will bring $50 billion and 50,000 jobs to US after meeting with Trump
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Masayoshi Son, the CEO of the Japanese telecom SoftBank, announced Tuesday that his company will invest $50 billion and bring 50,000 jobs to the US after he met with President-elect Donald Trump.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Son told reporters at Trump Tower that the investment would come from a $100 billion fund created in partnership with the Saudi Arabia sovereign-wealth fund and other investors.
SoftBank in October announced a $100 billion tech fund with the Saudis called the SoftBank Vision Fund. The fund had not detailed where it would invest.
Details about the jobs or what sort of businesses the fund would invest in were not announced. But Son showed reporters a PowerPoint slide signed by Son and Trump with the vague numbers.
Shortly after the meeting, Trump tweeted the details of the agreement and said the deal never would have been done "had we (Trump) not won the election."
Son and Trump came down from the president-elect's office in Trump Tower to announce the move to reporters gathered in the lobby. Trump called Son "one of the great men of industry" before leaving the Softbank CEO to talk to reporters.
"I just came to celebrate his new job," Son said, according to a pool report. "I said, 'This is great. The US will become great again.'"
SoftBank is the second-largest telecom by market share in Japan after rival NTT.
The SoftBank move comes a week after Trump announced a deal with United Technologies to keep about 1,000 jobs at its Carrier plant in Indiana.
Following the news, shares of the US-based telecom Sprint spiked just over 4% as of 2:50 p.m. ET. SoftBank owns 83% of Sprint.
Additionally, shares of T-Mobile jumped around 2% after the SoftBank announcement; Son has long targeted the firm for a takeover. Son declined to comment on a T-Mobile takeover that was quashed because of possible possible regulatory action, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Watch Son and Trump's announcement:
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