The head of Japan`s SoftBank Group Corporation, which in October set up a $100 billion fund for technology investments, said on Tuesday he would invest $50 billion in US businesses, a move President-elect Donald Trump claimed was a direct result of his election win. 

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The investment, which could create 50,000 new US jobs, revived speculation on Wall Street that US telecommunications giant Sprint Corp , 82% owned by SoftBank, might rekindle merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc that died under pressure from US regulators. 

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 overregulation of business and is expected to be more open to mergers than President Barack Obama.

The investment announced on Tuesday would come from the $100 billion investment fund SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son is setting up with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund and other potential partners, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Trump made the announcement in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan where he met with the head of SoftBank, a $68 billion telecommunications and tech investment behemoth.

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

 

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

 

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It was not immediately clear how much of SoftBank`s investment had been disclosed before. Softbank said on November 7, the day before the US 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 November 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 has also been stepping up investment in new areas. It agreed to buy UK chip design firm Arm Holdings in July in Japan`s largest ever outbound deal.