Author: Tristan Greene, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

On December 16, Masayoshi Son, CEO of the Japanese investment holding company Softbank Group, announced , his company will invest at least $100 billion in the United States to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The announcement was made at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. According to Trump, the partnership will create 100,000 jobs focused on artificial intelligence.

During the announcement, Son and Trump joked with each other that the president-elect was trying to double the initial amount. Son laughed and called Trump a "great negotiator" and promised to "work hard to achieve this goal."

President-elect Trump and Son have a long-standing relationship, with the two signing a similar partnership in 2016 during Trump's first term.

At that time, SoftBank Group pledged to provide US$50 billion to the United States for infrastructure construction and promised to create 50,000 new jobs. It's unclear if any jobs were created, but a CNBC report indicates funds were disbursed in 2020.

At the same time, under Trump’s second term, SoftBank may face far fewer restrictions on foreign trade and investment markets in the United States than it did a few years ago. Trump has vowed to cut and/or consolidate banking regulators and pledged to quickly advance any investment over $1 trillion to include environmental impact regulation.

Son’s cooperation with Trump comes at a time of renaissance for the company. The company lost 99% of its value when the dot-com bubble burst from 2000 to 2002, but is now on the rise again.

Analysts attribute much of this recovery to the company's strategic investments in artificial intelligence, including the $1.5 billion acquisition of ChatGPT maker OpenAI in November 2024.

The recent growth comes despite a series of failures related to the Vision investment arm, including the closure of WeWork, which cost the company more than $14 billion.

As of the end of 2024, SoftBank has approximately $175 billion in assets and equivalents, but it is unclear how much of this will be available for immediate investment. According to Trump and Son, SoftBank Group will pay the entire $100 billion before the end of 2028.