MIAMI - Miami Mayor Francis Suarez praised President-elect Donald Trump on Monday after he announced a new business agreement with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to invest and create new jobs in the United States over the next four years.
"It’s not even January 20th, and @realdonaldTrump is already delivering on his commitment to creating jobs and making sure that cutting-edge tech is Made in America," Suarez said. "This is the Trump Effect in action."
Suarez's praise comes after Trump announced the deal with Son at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
"Today, I'm thrilled to announce that SoftBank will be investing $100 billion dollars in America, creating 100,000 American jobs at a minimum," Trump said. "And he's [SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son] doing this because he feels very optimistic about since the election."
Trump added the investment would build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. He further called the deal "a monumental demonstration of confidence in America's future."
According to a report, funding from the agreement may come from various sources controlled by SoftBank, including the Vision Fund, capital projects, and chipmaker Arm Holdings, where the firm is a majority owner.
However, the report also indicated some funding may not necessarily be new, but instead come from SoftBank's previous $1.5 billion investment deal in OpenAI, the tech firm behind chatbot ChatGPT.
SoftBank is a technology and telecoms company based in Toyko, Japan. The 67-year-old Son founded the company in 1981 and has since invested in dozens of Silicon Valley startups.
The multi-billionaire tech owner has previously invested in semiconductor design company Arm and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Gains in the stock market and enthusiasm for Artificial Intelligence, or AI, have also boosted the value of SoftBank's assets in recent years.
“My confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased with his victory,” Son said. “President Trump is a double-down president. I’m going to have to double down.”
This is the latest investment deal between Son and Trump after the pair agreed to a similar deal in 2016. Back then, the CEO pledged $50 billion to help create $50,000 jobs in the United States during his first presidential term in office.
Along with his praise yesterday, Saurez has commended Trump on other issues in the past, including economic opportunity for Hispanic Americans and border security leading up to the presidential election.
