President-elect Donald Trump is claiming credit for a $50 billion investment in the United States by a Japanese tech conglomerate -- a deal he says wouldn't have happened without him.

The company, Softbank, hasn't given details. But in October, weeks before the election, Softbank and the government of Saudi Arabia agreed to form a $100 billion fund to invest in technology companies around the world.

Trump tweeted the news Tuesday afternoon: "Masa (SoftBank) of Japan has agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs," he wrote. "Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!"

At about the same time, the president-elect made a brief appearance with Softbank (SFTBF) CEO Masayoshi Son at Trump Tower.

Speaking with reporters, Son said he told Trump he would like to "celebrate his presidential job" because Trump has made deregulation part of his platform.

Son also said the investment would be in "startup companies" in the U.S.

Softbank has huge stakes in wireless, broadband, internet, e-commerce, chipmaking and gadget businesses. It's one of the largest telecommunications companies in Japan, and it was the first Japanese cell phone carrier to sell the iPhone.

Softbank bought 70% of Sprint for $20 billion in 2012. It also has enormous stakes in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Yahoo Japan and smartphone chip designer ARM. And it has partnered with Foxconn on its robotics business, most notably making Pepper, the robot pal that learns to love people.

Son, the company's idiosyncratic CEO, put together a 300-year plan for Softbank that calls for it to help permanently break down language barriers and allow people to communicate telepathically.

Softbank wants to build computers that invent new machines and raise the human life expectancy to 200 years.

Stock in Sprint (S), which is owned by SoftBank, immediately jumped more than 2%.</s>President-elect Donald Trump is claiming credit for a $50 billion investment in the United States by a Japanese tech conglomerate -- a deal he says wouldn't have happened without him.

The company, SoftBank, hasn't given details. But in October, weeks before the election, SoftBank and the government of Saudi Arabia agreed to form a $100 billion fund to invest in technology companies around the world.

Trump tweeted the news Tuesday afternoon: "Masa (SoftBank) of Japan has agreed to invest $50 billion in the U.S. toward businesses and 50,000 new jobs," he wrote. "Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!"

At about the same time, the president-elect made a brief appearance with SoftBank (SFTBF) CEO Masayoshi Son at Trump Tower.

Speaking with reporters, Son said he told Trump he would like to "celebrate his presidential job" because Trump has made deregulation part of his platform.

Son also said the investment would be in "startup companies" in the U.S.

SoftBank funds have already invested in some highly-valued tech startups across the globe. Among them: personal finance firm SoFi and Uber competitors Ola in India, Grab in Southeast Asia and Didi Chuxing in China, according to PitchBook. Uber sold its Chinese operations to Didi earlier this year.

SoftBank has huge stakes in wireless, broadband, internet, e-commerce, chipmaking and gadget businesses. It's one of the largest telecommunications companies in Japan, and it was the first Japanese cell phone carrier to sell the iPhone.

SoftBank bought 70% of Sprint for $20 billion in 2012. It also has enormous stakes in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Yahoo Japan and smartphone chip designer ARM. And it has partnered with Foxconn on its robotics business, most notably making Pepper, the robot pal that learns to love people.

Son, the company's idiosyncratic CEO, put together a 300-year plan for SoftBank that calls for it to help permanently break down language barriers and allow people to communicate telepathically.

SoftBank wants to build computers that invent new machines and raise the human life expectancy to 200 years.

Stock in Sprint (S), which is owned by SoftBank, immediately jumped more than 2%.</s>WASHINGTON – Six Democratic senators from Rust Belt states won by President-elect Donald Trump called Tuesday for a swift congressional crackdown on U.S. companies that send manufacturing jobs abroad, claiming common cause with Trump’s crusade against outsourcing.

Trump on Sunday tweeted that “any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. without retribution or consequence, is WRONG!” He threatened to impose a 35 percent tariff on goods those companies seek to import.

The Democratic senators from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin stopped short of calling for a protectionist tariff regime. But in a letter to congressional leaders Tuesday, they applauded “the recent attention President-elect Trump has brought to the issue of outsourcing and its impact on middle-class families” and called for legislation that would penalize companies that send jobs abroad.

Those penalties, they say, should include considering outsourcing when awarding federal contracts and potentially outsourcers from receiving tax breaks and other federal incentives, and “clawing back” those incentives if companies later ship jobs out of the country.

“The loss of manufacturing jobs in our states has contributed to the decades-long trend of the declining middle class,” the letter reads. “We believe these principles-which we intend to introduce as legislation-are critical to our shared commitment to encourage companies to invest in the United States and in American workers.”

The lead signer of the letter is Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who praised the decision last month by Carrier Corp., under pressure from Trump, to reverse its decision to send hundreds of Indianapolis manufacturing jobs to Mexico. But the company is still planning to move hundreds of other jobs, and Donnelly has pushed Trump to do more

“I strongly encourage you to make it clear that efforts to ship jobs offshore to chase cheap wages will be addressed head on by the Trump Administration,” he wrote in a separate letter last week. “I stand ready to assist in any way possible.”

Donnelly is up for re-election in 2018 in a state where Trump won 57 percent of the vote.

Also signing the letter are Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Bob Casey, D-Pa., Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.</s>FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — President-elect Donald Trump promised to “heal our divisions and unify our country” as he prepares to meet with some of the victims of last week’s car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University.

“When Americans are unified there is nothing we cannot do — nothing!” Trump told the crowd at a rally Tuesday night in Fayetteville, North Carolina. “I’m asking you to dream big again as Americans. I’m asking you to believe in yourselves.”

The Republican businessman largely stuck to the script — and, in a change, even stopped the crowd when it started to boo the media — and avoided some of the score-settling and scorched-earth rhetoric that defined his campaign and was present again last week in Cincinnati.

Trump is expected to visit Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the plans but not authorized to discuss them before they are announced.

Authorities have said Ohio State University student Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, stabbed students before being fatally shot by police. He first rammed a campus crowd with his car before hopping out with a knife.

Authorities have said Artan, a Somali immigrant, was inspired by Islamic State rhetoric, but they are still investigating the claim by the militant group that it had recruited the student. Trump has denounced the immigration policies that allowed Artan into the country.

Trump will nominate Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the next U.S. ambassador to China, the world’s second-largest economy, a transition official said early Wednesday.

His appointment may help to ease trade tensions between the two countries, the world’s two biggest agricultural producers, diplomats and trade experts said.

In China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang called Branstad an “old friend” of China but said Beijing would work with any U.S. ambassador.

“We welcome him to play a greater role in advancing the development of China-U.S. relations,” he told a daily news briefing.

In North Carolina on Tuesday, he repeated his vow to fortify the nation’s military and brought Marine Gen. James Mattis on stage, officially naming his choice to be defense secretary after teasing it last week.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump telegraphed that when he takes office in six weeks he’ll take an interventionist role in the nation’s economy — as well as play showman when he sees a chance. The celebrity businessman’s declaration about Air Force One caused manufacturer Boeing’s stock to drop temporarily and raised fresh questions about how his administration — not to mention his Twitter volleys — could affect the economy.

“The plane is totally out of control,” Trump told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower. “I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money.” Earlier he had tweeted that the deal’s costs were “out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!”

Not long after his first appearance, Trump returned to the lobby with Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, a massive telecommunications company that counts Sprint among its holdings. Trump pointed proudly to Son’s commitment to invest $50 billion in the United States, which Trump said could create 50,000 jobs.

Trump — who also tweeted the deal — shook Son’s hand and posed for photos. Details of the deal were scarce and it was unclear if the money was part of a fund of up to $100 billion in global technology investments that SoftBank and the government of Saudi Arabia announced in October.

As for Air Force One, the government has agreed that Boeing will build two new planes, which would go into service around 2024. That means Trump might never fly on the aircraft, which carry U.S. presidents around the globe.

The overall deal for researching, developing and building new planes was to be about $3 billion, but costs have been reported to be rising. The General Accountability Office estimated in March that about $2 billion of the total — for work between 2010 and 2020 — was for research and development on complex systems, not for building the actual aircraft. The inflated $4 billion figure Trump cited appears to include operation and maintenance as well.

Trump had tweeted in 2013 that he owned Boeing stock, but a spokesman said Tuesday he sold all of his stock holdings in June. That sale was not publicized by the campaign at the time, and aides did not reveal how much cash it might have generated.</s>Billionaire business tycoon Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday he would invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 new jobs, a move President-elect Donald Trump claimed was a direct result of his election win.

The investment revived speculation that U.S. telecoms giant Sprint Corp., 82 percent-owned by Son’s SoftBank Group Corp., might rekindle merger talks with T-Mobile U.S. Inc that died under pressure from U.S. regulators.

The lack of details on investment timetable also prompted doubts whether the promise of money and jobs will be met, as Sprint is slashing staff numbers to cut more than $2 billion in costs this year.

Trump’s moves since the election to engage with individual companies, while turning his back on broader, years-in-the-works trade deals, show that the President-elect is leaning on the deal-making skills he honed in the boardroom.

Trump campaigned against the over-regulation of business and is expected to be more open to mergers than President Barack Obama.

The investment, announced jointly by Trump and Son in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, would come from the $100 billion investment fund the head of SoftBank is setting up with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and other potential partners, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Masa from SoftBank of Japan, and he’s just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs,” Trump said.

“He would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!” Trump later Tweeted.

Son, who wore a red tie and red sweater under his suit jacket, told reporters his company, a $68 billion telecommunications and tech investment behemoth, would create jobs by investing in startup companies in the United States.

“We are going to invest $50 billion into the U.S. and commit to create 50,000 new jobs,” said Son, adding that he expected a lot of “deregulation” under a Trump administration.

Trump and Son did not give a timeline for the investment. Trump’s four-year term will begin after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Son’s well-timed meeting with Trump is introducing U.S. audiences to a side of the billionaire already familiar in Japan — a consummate showman.

Son, who rose to global prominence when SoftBank acquired Sprint in 2013, is known overseas primarily as a savvy investor and entrepreneur. But the Japanese have long seen his dramatic side, like the time he choked up on stage remembering his difficult upbringing, with a giant black-and-white photo of his immigrant grandmother hovering in the background.

SoftBank’s strategy of investing in startups which employ relatively few people means Son may struggle to deliver on his job promise. The 50,000 target exceeds the combined workforce of Sprint, SoftBank’s most recent acquisition ARM Holdings Plc and its e-commerce unit Yahoo Japan Corp.

Japan’s second-richest man has a 300-year plan for his worldwide technology empire and is fond of speaking about the imminent advent of advanced artificial intelligence. Son often teams up with SoftBank’s Pepper robot for company announcements. He also likes to poke fun at his balding pate to the delight of his 2.5 million Twitter followers.

While Son is a celebrity in Japan, he has a long way to go in the U.S. Addressing local media after the meeting, Son had to explain that SoftBank is not the manufacturer of Apple Inc.’s iPhone and he is not in fact the CEO of Foxconn Technology Group, the Taiwanese company that makes the smartphones.

In October, prior to the election, SoftBank said Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would be the lead partner in the fund and could invest up to $45 billion over the next five years. SoftBank expects to put in at least $25 billion.

Shares in SoftBank rose 6.2 percent to close at ¥7,387 on Wednesday in Tokyo.

“Now the market sees SoftBank as a Trump-related stock and that’s because it reacted favorably to their meeting,” said Fumio Matsumoto, a fund manager at Dalton Capital in Japan.

Son had hoped to merge Sprint with T-Mobile U.S. to take on U.S. market leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.

Shares of Sprint briefly reached their highest level in 2½ years, soon after Son’s comments. They closed up 1.5 percent to $8.17 in heavy trading, ending well below session highs. Shares of T-Mobile U.S. were up 1.8 percent at $55.99.

It was not immediately clear how much of SoftBank’s investment had been disclosed before. SoftBank said on Nov. 7, the day before the U.S. election, it planned to make future large-scale investments via the $100 billion tech fund, rather than on its own, to avoid growing already-bloated debt.

Whether or not Trump’s election led to SoftBank’s planned investment, the billionaire’s victory has been a boon to stock investors. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at another record level on Tuesday, its 11th new high since the Nov. 8 vote.

Should the SoftBank fund grow as large as $100 billion, it would be one of the world’s largest private equity investors and a potential kingpin in the technology sector.

SoftBank, a diverse firm that also holds stakes in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has been stepping up investment in new areas, as Son aims to make the firm the “Berkshire Hathaway of the tech industry.” It purchased U.K. chip design firm Arm Holdings for $32 billion this year in Japan’s largest ever outbound deal.</s>Trump stopped in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he has been meeting with advisers and potential Cabinet picks, along with SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Masa from SoftBank of Japan, and he’s just agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs," Trump said.

Son told reporters his company would create jobs by investing in start up companies in the United States.

"I just came to celebrate his new job. We were talking about it. Then I said I would like to celebrate his presidential job and commit, because he would do a lot of deregulation. I said this is great. The United States would become great again,” Son said.</s>FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — President-elect Donald Trump promised to "heal our divisions and unify our country" as he prepares to meet with some of the victims of last week's car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University.

"When Americans are unified there is nothing we cannot do — nothing!" Trump told the crowd at a rally Tuesday night in Fayetteville, North Carolina. "I'm asking you to dream big again as Americans. I'm asking you to believe in yourselves."

The Republican businessman largely stuck to the script — even stopped the crowd when it started to boo the media — and avoided some of the score-settling and scorched-earth rhetoric that defined his campaign and was present last week in Cincinnati.

Meanwhile, Trump was named Time magazine's Person of the Year on Wednesday, a choice the magazine's managing editor said was "straightforward" given that Trump had upended politics-as-usual during the course of his extraordinary race for the White House.

"It's a great honor. It means a lot," Trump said in a telephone interview on NBC's "Today" show.

Trump is expected to visit Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the plans but not authorized to discuss them before they are announced.

Authorities have said Ohio State University student Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, stabbed students before being fatally shot by police. He first rammed a campus crowd with his car before hopping out with a knife. They said Artan, a Somali immigrant, was inspired by Islamic State rhetoric. Trump has denounced the immigration policies that allowed Artan into the country.

In North Carolina, he repeated his vow to fortify the nation's military and brought Marine Gen. James Mattis on stage, officially naming his choice to be defense secretary after teasing it last week.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump telegraphed that when he takes office in six weeks he'll take an interventionist role in the nation's economy — as well as play showman when he sees a chance. The celebrity businessman's declaration about Air Force One caused manufacturer Boeing's stock to drop temporarily and raised fresh questions about how his administration — not to mention his Twitter volleys — could affect the economy.

"The plane is totally out of control," Trump told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower. "I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money." Earlier he had tweeted that the deal's costs were "out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!"

Not long after his first appearance, Trump returned to the lobby with Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, a massive telecommunications company that counts Sprint among its holdings. Trump pointed proudly to Son's commitment to invest $50 billion in the United States, which Trump said could create 50,000 jobs.

Trump — who also tweeted the deal — shook Son's hand and posed for photos. Details of the deal were scarce and it was unclear if the money was part of a fund of up to $100 billion in global technology investments that SoftBank and the government of Saudi Arabia announced in October.

As for Air Force One, the government has agreed that Boeing will build two new planes, which would go into service around 2024. That means Trump might never fly on the aircraft, which carry U.S. presidents around the globe.

The overall deal for researching, developing and building new planes was to be about $3 billion, but costs have been reported to be rising. The General Accountability Office estimated in March that about $2 billion of the total — for work between 2010 and 2020 — was for research and development on complex systems, not for building the actual aircraft. The inflated $4 billion figure Trump cited appears to include operation and maintenance as well.

Trump had tweeted in 2013 that he owned Boeing stock, but a spokesman said Tuesday he sold all of his stock holdings in June. That sale was not publicized by the campaign at the time, and aides did not reveal how much cash it might have generated.

Associated Press writers Joseph Pisani in New York and Stephen Braun and Richard Lardner in Washington contributed reporting.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — Winning praise from President-elect Donald Trump for being a “great man of industry,” Japanese tech billionaire Masayoshi Son promised to invest $50 billion in new startups in the United States, committing to creating 50,000 new jobs.

Son is the founder and chief executive of Japanese technology and telecoms giant SoftBank, which owns the U.S. mobile carrier Sprint. Sprint shares initially spiked after the announcement. Son left Trump Tower after being escorted down the elevator by the president-elect, who touted the pledge before waiting investors.

“We are going to invest $50 billion in the U.S. and commit to create 50,000 new jobs,” Son told reporters. “We (will) invest into the new startup companies in the United States.”

The announcement is the latest instance in which Trump appears to be conducting economic policy via ad-hoc deal-making — sometimes taking credit whether he deserves it or not. Last week, the president-elect spoke at the Carrier furnace plant in Indianapolis after the company announced plans to keep 800 jobs at the plant instead of outsourcing them to Mexico. Trump quickly claimed he had saved those positions, even though the company is still shifting more than 1,000 jobs from that factory and another Indiana plant to Mexico.

Similarly, the week after the election Trump tweeted that he had dissuaded Ford Motor Co. from moving a Kentucky factory to Mexico. The claim was a stretch; Ford had no plans to move the plant and had already agreed to keep producing one specific model there, although it did back away from a plan to shift production of the Lincoln MKC, a small SUV, from Louisville to Cuautitlan, Mexico.

Trump quickly took credit for Son’s commitment on Tuesday, writing on Twitter: “Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!”

“I just came to celebrate his new job,” Son said. “Because he said he would do a lot of deregulation, I said, ‘This is great, the U.S. will become great again’.”

Trump praised Son for being a “great man of industry,” and “one of the truly great men,” adding, “See you soon” as he headed back upstairs.

Trump plans to meet with leading tech executives next week, a group that will include venture capitalist Peter Thiel — one of Trump’s few supporters in Silicon Valley — and Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins. The job commitments that Trump claims to have produced are symbolically resonant. Still, the economy has generated 2.25 million new jobs in the past 12 months and many economists say that accelerating this pace may be difficult in the long run because of the aging U.S. population.

Financial details about Son’s commitment and its timeframe remain unclear. T-Mobile did not answer emailed questions. Sprint spokesman Dave Tovar referred questions to Softbank.

As he spoke to reporters, Son held up a paper with the logos of Softbank and Foxconn, a tech manufacturer that makes iPhones for Apple in China. The paper listed the figures $50 billion and $7 billion and said “generate 50,000 new jobs and 50,000 new jobs over the next four years.

Foxconn Technology Group issued a statement saying it could “confirm that we are in preliminary discussions regarding a potential investment that would represent an expansion of our current US operations.”

The statement said the scope of any possible investment was undecided and details would be announced after discussions with “relevant U.S. officials.”

Sprint has struggled since its 2013 acquisition by Softbank. The carrier’s attempt to join with rival T-Mobile failed in 2014 after regulators objected to combining two of the four largest mobile telecom companies in the United States. T-Mobile has surpassed Sprint to become the No. 3 carrier, while Sprint has struggled with cost cuts and layoffs. (AT&T and Verizon are the largest wireless carriers.)

Analysts have predicted, however, that a Trump-led Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission would be more likely to allow telecom mergers , including a deal between Sprint and T-Mobile. T-Mobile has 50,000 employees and a stock-market value of $46 billion — but the similarities between those numbers and Son’s commitment could just be a coincidence.

In October, SoftBank announced that it would establish a $25 billion fund for technology investments that could grow to $100 billion. SoftBank said it signed an agreement with a fund run by the government of Saudi Arabia and other investors. Japanese media said the planned $50 billion investment would come from that fund. Softbank spokesman Matthew Nicholson declined to say if it would provide the money for the U.S. investments.

SoftBank also owns Britain’s ARM Holdings. ARM is known as an innovator in the “internet of things,” and in technology used in smartphones. It also sells the Pepper human-shaped companion robot for homes and businesses, and runs a solar energy business in Japan. The company, founded in 1981, also has within its investment empire financial technology and ride-booking services.

Arbel reported from New York. AP technology writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this report from San Francisco.</s>By Josh Boak and Tali Arbel, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — After meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday, Japanese tech billionaire Masayoshi Son said he will invest $50 billion in the United States and would “commit” to creating 50,000 new jobs over an unspecified time period.

Son is the founder and chief executive of SoftBank, one of Japan’s largest technology outfits, which owns the U.S. mobile carrier Sprint. Sprint shares initially spiked after the announcement. Son left Trump Tower after being escorted down the elevator by the president-elect, who touted the pledge before waiting investors.

The announcement is the latest instance in which Trump appears to be conducting economic policy via ad-hoc deal-making — sometimes taking credit whether he deserves it or not. Last week, the president-elect spoke at the Carrier furnace plant in Indianapolis after the company announced plans to keep 800 jobs at the plant instead of outsourcing them to Mexico. Trump quickly claimed he had saved those positions, even though the company is still shifting more than 1,000 jobs from that factory and another Indiana plant to Mexico.

Similarly, the week after the election Trump tweeted that he had dissuaded Ford Motor Co. from moving a Kentucky factory to Mexico. The claim was a stretch; Ford had no plans to move the plant and had already agreed to keep producing one specific model there, although it did back away from a plan to shift production of the Lincoln MKC, a small SUV, from Louisville to Cuautitlan, Mexico.

Trump quickly took credit for Son’s commitment on Tuesday, writing on Twitter: “Masa said he would never do this had we (Trump) not won the election!”

“I just came to celebrate his new job,” Son said. “I said, ‘This is great, the U.S. will become great again’.”

Trump plans to meet with leading tech executives next week, a group that will include venture capitalist Peter Thiel — one of Trump’s few supporters in Silicon Valley — and Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins. The job commitments that Trump claims to have produced are symbolically resonant. Still, the economy has generated 2.25 million new jobs in the past 12 months and many economists say that accelerating this pace may be difficult in the long run because of the aging U.S. population.

Financial details about Son’s commitment and its timeframe remain unclear. Softbank and T-Mobile did not answer emailed questions. Sprint spokesman Dave Tovar referred questions to Softbank. Foxconn, a tech manufacturer that makes iPhones for Apple in China, also did not answer questions. Its logo was next to Softbank’s on a piece of paper Son carried.

Sprint has struggled since its 2013 acquisition by Softbank. The carrier’s attempt to join with rival T-Mobile failed in 2014 after regulators objected to combining two of the four largest mobile telecom companies in the United States. T-Mobile has surpassed Sprint to become the No. 3 carrier, while Sprint has struggled with cost cuts and layoffs. (AT&T and Verizon are the largest wireless carriers.)

Analysts have predicted, however, that a Trump-led Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission would be more likely to allow telecom mergers , including a deal between Sprint and T-Mobile. T-Mobile has 50,000 employees and a stock-market value of $46 billion — but the similarities between those numbers and Son’s commitment could just be a coincidence.

In October, SoftBank announced that it would establish a $25 billion fund for technology investments that could grow to $100 billion. SoftBank said it signed an agreement with a fund run by the government of Saudi Arabia and other investors.

In addition to Sprint, SoftBank owns Britain’s ARM Holdings. ARM is known as an innovator in the “internet of things,” and in technology used in smartphones. It also sells the Pepper human-shaped companion robot for homes and businesses, and runs a solar energy business in Japan. The company, founded in 1981, also has within its investment empire financial technology and ride-booking services.

AP technology writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this report from San Francisco.</s>FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised to "heal our divisions and unify our country" as he prepares to meet with some of the victims of last week's car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University."When Americans are unified there is nothing we cannot do — nothing!" Trump told the crowd at a rally Tuesday night in Fayetteville, North Carolina. "I'm asking you to dream big again as Americans. I'm asking you to believe in yourselves."The Republican businessman largely stuck to the script — and, in a change, even stopped the crowd when it started to boo the media — and avoided some of the score-settling and scorched-earth rhetoric that defined his campaign and was present again last week in Cincinnati.Trump is expected to visit Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the plans but not authorized to discuss them before they are announced.Authorities have said Ohio State University student Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, stabbed students before being fatally shot by police. He first rammed a campus crowd with his car before hopping out with a knife.Authorities have said Artan, a Somali immigrant, was inspired by Islamic State rhetoric, but they are still investigating the claim by the militant group that it had recruited the student. Trump has denounced the immigration policies that allowed Artan into the country.In North Carolina, he repeated his vow to fortify the nation's military and brought Marine Gen. James Mattis on stage, officially naming his choice to be defense secretary after teasing it last week.Earlier Tuesday, Trump telegraphed that when he takes office in six weeks he'll take an interventionist role in the nation's economy — as well as play showman when he sees a chance. The celebrity businessman's declaration about Air Force One caused manufacturer Boeing's stock to drop temporarily and raised fresh questions about how his administration — not to mention his Twitter volleys — could affect the economy."The plane is totally out of control," Trump told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower. "I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money, but not that much money." Earlier he had tweeted that the deal's costs were "out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!"Not long after his first appearance, Trump returned to the lobby with Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, a massive telecommunications company that counts Sprint among its holdings. Trump pointed proudly to Son's commitment to invest $50 billion in the United States, which Trump said could create 50,000 jobs.Trump — who also tweeted the deal — shook Son's hand and posed for photos. Details of the deal were scarce and it was unclear if the money was part of a fund of up to $100 billion in global technology investments that SoftBank and the government of Saudi Arabia announced in October.As for Air Force One, the government has agreed that Boeing will build two new planes, which would go into service around 2024. That means Trump might never fly on the aircraft, which carry U.S. presidents around the globe.The overall deal for researching, developing and building new planes was to be about $3 billion, but costs have been reported to be rising. The General Accountability Office estimated in March that about $2 billion of the total — for work between 2010 and 2020 — was for research and development on complex systems, not for building the actual aircraft. The inflated $4 billion figure Trump cited appears to include operation and maintenance as well.Trump had tweeted in 2013 that he owned Boeing stock, but a spokesman said Tuesday he sold all of his stock holdings in June. That sale was not publicized by the campaign at the time, and aides did not reveal how much cash it might have generated.___Associated Press writers Joseph Pisani in New York and Stephen Braun and Richard Lardner in Washington contributed reporting.___Reach Lemire on Twitter at http: [email protected]
After a meeting with President-elect of the United States Donald Trump, Masayoshi Son of SoftBank Group pledges to invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 jobs.