① It is reported that SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is working closely with the Trump administration to finalize a plan called the "Trump Industrial Park"; ② The project will be funded using hundreds of billions of dollars pledged by the Japanese government during US-Japan trade negotiations, with disbursements potentially beginning as early as the beginning of 2026; ③ Son firmly believes that SoftBank will become a leader in artificial intelligence. As a leader in the field, he has also increased his stake in SoftBank.
It is reported that SoftBank Group founder and billionaire investor Masayoshi Son is working closely with the Trump administration. After months of discussions with White House and Commerce Department officials, SoftBank is finalizing a plan called "Trump Industrial Parks," which aims to build Trump-branded industrial parks across the United States.
According to sources familiar with the discussions, these parks will be primarily built on U.S. federal land and will mainly produce components for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The project is funded by funds pledged by the Japanese government during the US-Japan trade negotiations, with disbursements expected to begin as early as the beginning of 2026. Once completed, the facilities will belong to the US federal government.
According to the trade agreement reached between the US and Japan in July this year, the US agreed to reduce tariffs on Japanese automobiles from 25% to 15%. In exchange, Japan pledged to invest $550 billion in US strategic industries (energy, semiconductors, and shipbuilding).
The U.S. government has the right to decide where this huge investment goes, and the U.S. retains 90% of the profits after the Japanese side recovers its costs.
Project blueprint
This high-tech industrial park project, known internally at SoftBank as Project Crystal, has undergone significant changes in its blueprint over the past six months.
From several meetings this spring, it is known that Masayoshi Son's initial idea was to build a $1 trillion "industrial city" in the desert north of Phoenix, Arizona, which would include semiconductors . The plan included manufacturing plants, chip packaging plants, processing plants, and residential areas for workers and managers. At the time, Masayoshi Son also briefed senior government officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on this concept.
However, due to the highly futuristic details of the "industrial city" and the difficulty in achieving a reliable water and electricity supply, this original concept was revised in several subsequent meetings.
SoftBank and the U.S. government have agreed to abandon a large-scale development project and instead promote the establishment of a series of "Trump Industrial Parks," whose manufacturing infrastructure will be spread across federal lands.
Discussions between SoftBank and the government are ongoing. According to sources, President Trump has indicated he will support Masayoshi Son's plans in principle.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement, "President Trump's relationships with business leaders across industries and regions have played a key role in ensuring that trillions of dollars of investment are in place to help build America's next golden age."
While the specific details are still under review, the current plan is for SoftBank to lead the construction of the factory cluster to produce fiber optic cables and data centers. The equipment will eventually produce artificial intelligence chips.
Other Japanese companies are also expected to participate in this process, including Toshiba, Murata, and Fujikura, and these technology companies will provide a wealth of expertise for these new projects.
It is understood that Masayoshi Son has contacted Toshiba, Murata Manufacturing, and Fujikura, seeking their investment commitments in the data center infrastructure manufacturing sector. Sources familiar with the matter revealed that the projects under discussion include manufacturing power transformers, fiber optic cables, power modules, and other hardware equipment needed to support large computing clusters.
Masayoshi Son's ambition
For years, Masayoshi Son has predicted that SoftBank will become a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics. The company is poised to be a leader in the field’s impending revolution, but it missed the boat by investing in generative artificial intelligence at an early stage.
To compensate for its slow start, it has forged a close partnership with OpenAI, including a $30 billion investment commitment to the company this year.
In addition, Masayoshi Son has been strengthening his relationship with the Trump administration, positioning himself as a champion of its plan to advance artificial intelligence hegemony by bringing more high-tech manufacturing back to the United States.
It is worth noting that Masayoshi Son recently increased his joint shareholding in SoftBank Group. According to a document submitted by SoftBank to the Japanese Ministry of Finance on December 5, Son's joint shareholding in SoftBank Group increased from 33.74% to 34.73%.
(Article source: CLS)
