Masayoshi Son founded SoftBank in 1981. It has invested millions in some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies.

Masayoshi Son, the Japanese tycoon helming US President Donald ... "And I've worked hard." He went to the United States aged 16 and, while studying at Berkeley, developed a translation machine that he sold for around $1 million. In his 20s, Son founded ...

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son's plan to invest billions in AI in the United States shows one way to handle the new Trump administration: go big and deal with the details later. For a Japan Inc anxious about how to navigate the second term of President Donald Trump - and the threat of steep tariffs or other punitive measures - that approach may not be so easy to replicate.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son comment on ... This means we can create AI and AGI in the United States of America. Wouldn't have been obvious ...

The effort was described as a $500 billion investment in artificial intelligence. Read how a small Texas city with a population of about 130,000 fits into the plans.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday a joint venture called Stargate, which will pump billions of dollars of private funding into artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

Donald Trump and three top tech firms announced on Tuesday that they would create a new company called Stargate to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the U.S. The President also said the three companies will collaborate and invest $500 billion in the AI infrastructure project.

President Donald Trump revealed a transformative plan to establish the United States as a global leader in artificial intelligence. The initiative, named the Stargate project, will channel $500 billion into developing advanced AI infrastructure,

President Donald Trump on Tuesday talked up a joint venture investing up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a

OpenAI has announced that it's teaming up with Softbank and Oracle on $100 billion data center project in the U.S.

Trump announced Tuesday that OpenAI, Softbank and Oracle would join forces to create Stargate, a new company investing $500 billion in AI infrastructure.

Harold James   The author is a professor of history and international affairs at Princeton University.    While U.S. President Donald Trump has left no doubt about his love of tariffs, the world is still waiting to see precisely what he will do. He has named China, Canada and Mexico as his first targets, but it remains to be seen whether he wants a grand slam, or more conditional measures linked to other policy issues (such as acquiring TikTok). For now, the only certainty is that his administration will use tariffs to extract concessions where it can.   The issue is complicated, though, because tariffs interact closely with other components of economic policy such as the exchange rate. In theory, higher tariffs should reduce import demand and push up the exchange rate, ultimately making foreign goods cheaper again. This is why Trump previously claimed that tariffs do not actually cost Americans anything, on the grounds that it is America’s trade partners who pay.   But trade and exchange-rate policies are generally handled by different agencies — the Department of Commerce and the Treasury, respectively — and conflict has frequently been a feature of their interactions. In the 1930s, the world ended up deeply divided because trade negotiators claimed that they could do nothing until exchange rates were fixed, while monetary officials argued that no exchange-rate settlement was possible until there had been a general opening of trade. In the event, protectionism escalated.   Complicating matters further, another mechanism has since come to the fore: the balance of payments. Since a country with a large trade deficit, like the United States, must pay for its imports somehow, it relies on foreigners to buy its securities or invest in its companies. These inflows of foreign funds to the United States are running at very high levels, because Americans do not save very much. The country imports savings from the rest of the world to pay for its trade deficit. If it did not, Americans would have to consume less, which would be experienced as a decline in their standard of living.   Higher tariffs jeopardize this arrangement, because the United States needs foreign investment to drive its future growth. Former President Joe Biden understood that foreign capital was necessary to “build back better,” and Trump should know that he cannot deliver his promised “golden age” without it. Perhaps that is why some of his first guests in the White House were Masayoshi Son of the Japanese investment giant SoftBank, the chairman of Oracle and the CEO of OpenAI, the “big money and high-quality people” behind a new $100 billion venture (Stargate) to build AI infrastructure.   The irony should be obvious. Trump’s bid to reclaim sovereignty and usher in a “new era of national success” depends on the same combination of technology and globalized finance that eroded the American middle class and turned many Americans into Trump voters in the first place. But this dependence on global capital is not just ironic; it also leaves America vulnerable. If the foreign money were to dry up, Trump’s promised miracle would become a nightmare.   One early warning would be if bond markets grew anxious about America’s capacity to repay the large debt it has accumulated. Since 2022, when UK Prime Minister Liz Truss made a similar gamble on growth, the bond market has returned as a force that even Americans cannot ignore. The “exorbitant privilege” of issuing the main global reserve currency does not mean that you can do absolutely anything. Market sentiment can shift, and when it does, it is usually quite dramatic — as in 1931 or 1971. Credibility can fall victim to suspicion and doubt overnight, especially in a world where the U.S. dollar has been weaponized for various political ends.   Foreign funding also could decline if the bright future that has been promised suddenly seems overhyped, or if the technology disappoints. Many investors already worry that today’s sky-high valuations for tech stocks may indicate a bubble. A big bet on this potential new engine of growth will require vast investments, but if the bubble bursts, plenty of projects will become stranded assets.   Yet another reason that foreign funding could end is that certain governments intervene to stop their countries’ citizens and firms from investing in the United States. This is one potential response to a new trade war or a strong dollar regime. If French wine, German cars or Chinese cars, aircraft and solar panels cannot be sold competitively in America, those governments might start weighing their options, and figures like Son could face more hurdles in trying to bring jobs and investment to the United States.   In fact, one of the easiest ways for governments to affect cross-border capital flows is to revise how foreign investments are taxed. With U.S. tech giants already complaining to Trump about the unfavorable tax treatment that they receive elsewhere, notably in Europe, tax policy could become yet another weaponized issue. The OECD’s negotiated global corporate minimum tax is clearly under threat, since Trump and congressional Republicans seem eager to cut corporate taxes as much as they can.   If they do, Europeans may have even more reasons to retaliate by increasing taxes not only on foreign companies in Europe, but also on their own corporations’ and citizens’ investments in the United States. Doing so could divert some European funds back to Europe, while making it even more difficult for the United States to balance its current account.   Economic fashions are contagious. It is only a matter of time before someone follows Trump’s own logic and offers a plan to “Make Europe Great Again.” A U.S. debt crisis could be the perverse result of his administration’s campaign against globalism.   Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2025.