Asia's two largest technology companies announced they want to expand investments in the United States as President-elect Donald Trump urges to bring manufacturing jobs back.
Softbank Corp's Masayoshi Son, a businessman worth billions, pledged investments in the United States worth $50 billion. Apart from that, Foxconn, the supplier for Apple Inc. also stated it was in the initial stages of discussing expansion of operations in the United States.
The incoming U.S. president reportedly met with a couple of other business tycoons at the Trump Tower. Big names included CEO Marion Blakey of Rolls Royce North America Inc., and Robert Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television. Trump was also scheduled to meet CEO Rex Tillerson of Exxon-Mobil Corp. next week.
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The investment pledge would help create around 50,000 new jobs as well as rekindled speculations that Softbank's Sprint, one of the country's biggest telecoms with 82 percent shares owned by Softbank, would renew its merger and mobile deals talks with T-Mobile US, Inc. that died due to pressure from regulators.
The $50 billion investment, which was announced together by Masayoshi Son and Donald Trump in the lobby of Manhattan's Trump Tower, would come from Softbank's $100 billion technology investment fund to be set up with Saudi Arabia's sovereign funds and other prospective partners.
Both businessmen did not provide a detailed timeline for the massive investment, however. The lack of information on the timetable prompted hesitations on whether the promised amount and jobs would be met, especially following news that Sprint slashed its employees to cut back after huge losses.
Masayoshi Son's business partner and Apple's supplier Foxconn, would invest an additional $7 billion worth of investments and would create another 50,000 jobs in the next few years.
Softbank's Shares
Now among Japan's largest telecommunications company, the Tokyo-based Softbank Corp has at least 63,000 employees, humanoid robots ready for deployment, solar power plants, financial technology business, and ride-booking services.
Back in October, before the U.S. Elections 2016, Softbank announced that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Funds (PIF) could be its lead partner in the huge $100 billion tech investments plus it could invest as much as $45 billion over the course of the next five years.
Softbank is a diverse company holding stakes in one of China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba. Its desire to step up its investments in other areas also prompted the Japanese conglomerate to purchase Arm Holdings, a computer chipset manufacturer based in the United Kingdom, for $32 billion earlier this year.
