The Blubber

President-elect Donald Trump announced an investment of at least $20 billion from Hussain Sajwani, the head of Damac Group, to build new data centers in the US. 

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Trump said the first phase of the investments would be in the states of Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana, painting it as critical to keeping the US competitive in emerging technologies.

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“The investment will support massive new data centers across the Midwest, the Sun Belt area, and also to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and artificial intelligence,” Trump said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday.

Trump vowed to help move the deal quickly through the environmental and permitting process and cast it as the result of his election victory, saying his return to power was encouraging foreign business leaders to invest in the US.

“We’re planning to invest $20 billion and even more than that if the opportunity, the market, allow us,” said Sajwani, whose company is based in the United Arab Emirates. 

Business leaders have sought to court Trump as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20, including visiting him at Mar-a-Lago and donating to his inauguration fund — and the president-elect has sought to highlight that support as a demonstration of how his policies will boost American business and as a contrast with his first term in which business leaders were more skeptical of his approach.

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During a press conference in December, Trump announced another major investment — a pledge from SoftBank Group Corp. to invest $100 billion in the US over the next four years — alongside the company’s chief executive officer, Masayoshi Son.

The incoming president won a second term largely over his economic agenda and voter frustration with how President Joe Biden’s administration handled the issue, with Americans expressing anxiety over high prices for goods and services and worries about wages and job growth.

Trump has pledged to use tariffs and tax policy to encourage foreign companies to invest in the US, part of a broad agenda that aims to bolster the economy by cutting corporate tax rates, rolling back regulations, extending and expanding tax cuts and benefits, ramping up domestic energy production and easing permitting for major projects.

Still, aspects of Trump’s agenda have spurred concern among business leaders and markets, particularly his vows to institute sweeping tariffs on US allies and adversaries and his vow to carry out mass deportations of illegal migrants.

On Monday, Trump denied a Washington Post report that his team was considering scaling back their plans for trade levies with more targeted tariffs focused on specific critical imports.