The World’s Top Tech Investor Is Betting Big on Trump -- Including Sprint Merger?

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The world’s largest technology investor is preparing to ramp up his bet on the Trump economy. Masayoshi Son, the billionaire technology entrepreneur from Japan, promised President Trump late in 2016 that he would create 50,000 new jobs in the United States through a $100 billion technology fund. Now, Son and his financial advisers are weighing several major possible deals for Sprint, the struggling American wireless operator controlled by Son’s SoftBank.

Be it a tie-up with T-Mobile US, Sprint’s closest competitor, or a more ambitious marriage with the cable colossus Comcast, a transaction would allow Son to fulfill a long-held ambition to invest aggressively in wireless networks in the United States and enable next-generation mobile technology. In Feb, several executives from SoftBank spent a day in Washington talking to senior members of Trump’s economic team, according to bankers briefed on these meetings. The talks and the rush to assess potential deals for Sprint, the country’s fourth-largest mobile operator, highlight how the Trump administration’s push for lighter regulation and lower taxes has been a powerful lure for cash-rich investors the world over.


The World’s Top Tech Investor Is Betting Big on Trump -- Including Sprint Merger?