Dec. 16 (UPI) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Monday that a Japanese tech conglomerate will make a multi-billion dollar investment in the United States and said it will create scores of new jobs in artificial intelligence technology.
“Today, I am thrilled to announce that SoftBank will be investing $100 billion in America, creating 100,000 American jobs at a minimum,” Trump read from a statement at his Florida estate alongside SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
The investment will extend over the next four years, according to information released on Monday.
During his extended remarks about the SoftBank investment, Trump also pledged to make tax cuts beyond his 2017 round and that any company investing more than $1 billion will be eligible for fully expedited permit approvals, including environmental approvals.
“This will be the most exciting and successful period of reform and renewal in all of American history, maybe of global history, the golden age of America, I call it, it’s begun,” he president-elect said.
Son and Trump revealed a $50 billion investment following Trump’s 2016 election win by Tokyo-based SoftBank, which oversees investments in financial, energy and tech companies.
Trump, 78, said the most recent investment announced on Monday “will help insure that artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and other industries of tomorrow are built, created right here” in the United States.
At one point, Trump jokingly asked Son to double his investment offer.
“President Trump is a double-down president. I’m going to have to double down,” Son responded.
According to Trump, this “historic investment” is a “monumental demonstration of confidence in America’s future.”
Trump, 78, said the most recent investment announced on Monday “will help insure that artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and other industries of tomorrow are built, created right here” in the United States, he said in part from Florida.
