Since returning to the White Home, US President Donald Trump has touted company and international US funding bulletins as proof he’s ushering in “the golden age of America”.
On January 21, Trump stated that earlier than he’d completed the “first full enterprise day” of his second time period, the USA had “already secured almost $3 trillion of latest investments”.
On April 2, he stated, “It appears to be like like we’re going to have about $6 trillion of investments”. Six days later, Trump informed Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee Dinner attendees that the funding complete was “now revised as much as about $7 (trillion)”.
Throughout an April 30 NewsNation city corridor, Trump speculated that “it might be greater than $8 trillion”.
On Might 4, Trump informed Kristen Welker, the host of the NBC Information programme Meet the Press, “I feel we in all probability have near $9 trillion of investments coming into this nation.”
On Might 6, Trump informed reporters, “I feel the actual quantity might be $9 or $10 trillion.”
Lastly, on Might 8, Trump stated, “We’ve got now near $10 trillion — consider that, $10 trillion” in investments. “We’re speaking about primarily two months.”
That’s far past the figures the White Home has launched publicly.
We tallied the White Home’s public lists of investments; they quantity to $2.1 trillion in company investments, or at most $5.1 trillion when together with promised investments from different international locations. Consultants cautioned that the promised company investments will not be assured to materialise in full, or throughout Trump’s presidency, and a few of them would have occurred no matter who was president.
Trump isn’t the primary to overstate new investments on his watch. Outgoing US President Joe Biden stated in 2024 that his bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act had attracted $640bn in non-public investments; economists informed PolitiFact that Biden’s numbers had been based mostly on what firms had introduced, which isn’t the identical as {dollars} already spent.
Roman V Yampolskiy, a College of Louisville professor and a specialist in synthetic intelligence, which dominates the promised investments Trump cited, stated, “Traditionally, large-scale funding bulletins usually overpromise and underdeliver. There’s a performative component to them, particularly in politically charged contexts. They operate as political theatre as a lot as financial dedication.”
White Home lists don’t match Trump’s phrases
Since Trump’s inauguration, the White Home has publicised funding bulletins from three international locations and roughly 60 firms on its web site, together with in a “non-comprehensive working record”. Lots of the highest-dollar company bulletins had been in March and April.
Company bulletins within the White Home’s lists complete roughly $2.1 trillion value of US funding.
The White Home individually has cited commitments from the United Arab Emirates to take a position $1.4 trillion over the subsequent 10 years; from Japan to “enhance” its funding within the US to $1 trillion; and from Saudi Arabia to take a position $600bn within the US throughout Trump’s presidency. Mixed with the company bulletins, these deliver the entire to about $5.1 trillion, $4.9 trillion in need of Trump’s determine.
However the $5.1 trillion complete has caveats. For instance, the White Home stated “Japan introduced a $1 trillion funding within the US”, however the article it linked stated in 2023, Japan’s US funding was $783.3bn and Japan would “enhance” that to $1 trillion. That’s a rise of $216.7bn fairly than a brand new $1 trillion funding. That will put the entire worth of newly pledged US funding at about $4.3 trillion.
Trump’s second-term White Home tally of US investments
The White Home figures can’t simply be used for apples-to-apples comparisons. A few of the investments are deliberate over Trump’s four-year time period, others over 5 years or a decade. In a single case – ADQ and Vitality Capital Companions’ deliberate $25bn funding — it isn’t restricted to US-based initiatives.
The White Home declined to element further investments. A spokesperson pointed to federal Bureau of Financial Evaluation knowledge that reveals a 22 p.c enhance in enterprise funding within the first quarter of 2025, calling it a historic enhance.
Nevertheless, consultants cautioned this enhance was formed by companies stocking up on stock earlier than Trump’s tariffs take impact and stated the rise is unlikely to be sustained.
Lots of the bulletins are aspirational, consultants say
Consultants informed PolitiFact that every of the 5 greatest investments on Trump’s record warrants some warning, as a result of they may not attain Trump’s cited greenback quantities or weren’t solely prompted by Trump’s insurance policies.
“Many of those bulletins, notably these within the AI and semiconductor sectors, seem like, at the least partly, aspirational in nature,” Yampolskiy stated. “They serve a signalling operate: to draw investor consideration, form coverage discourse, and safe beneficial regulatory or funding environments.”
The 5 largest firm investments collectively account for 82 p.c of the greenback worth on the White Home’s company record.
5 firms accounting for almost all of latest funding guarantees are:
Stargate
The Stargate Undertaking is a man-made intelligence collaboration amongst OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank, introduced throughout a January 21 White Home occasion. The White Home values the funding at $500bn.
The corporate’s official announcement says $100bn can be invested “instantly” and that it “intends to take a position” a complete of $500bn over the subsequent 4 years, a objective repeated by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son on the White Home occasion.
“Whether or not that a lot will in the end get spent stays to be seen,” wrote John Higgins, chief economist at Capital Economics, a world consulting agency.
Enrique Dans, who research know-how and coverage at Madrid’s IE Enterprise Faculty, stated the $500bn determine is “astronomical – roughly 2 p.c of US gross home product – and lacks clear documentation”.
On the White Home occasion, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated, “We wouldn’t be capable of do that with out you, Mr President.” However Altman had been discussing plans for a $100bn funding 10 months earlier than Trump received his second time period, The Washington Publish reported, together with an Abilene, Texas, knowledge centre that started development in summer time 2024.
“AI investments have been on a worldwide trajectory pushed by technological maturity and aggressive stress, particularly from China,” Dans stated. “Any US president would have seen a surge.”
Nvidia
Nvidia Corp, one other AI firm, stated it plans to take a position as much as $500bn in US infrastructure over the subsequent 4 years. Beforehand, Nvidia manufactured most of its chips in Taiwan.
“It’s unlikely Nvidia would have moved any manufacturing to the US if it was not for stress from the Trump administration,” Gil Luria, an analyst with the monetary companies agency D.A. Davidson, informed Reuters. Nevertheless, Luria added, “The half a trillion quantity is probably going hyperbole.”
Dans stated that though tax cuts from Trump’s first time period have benefited the corporate’s give attention to US-based efforts, “the core progress doubtless would have occurred anyway”, whatever the president.
Apple
On February 24, days after Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook dinner, met with Trump, the patron electronics large introduced it plans to spend “greater than $500bn within the US over the subsequent 4 years.”
Analysts have expressed scepticism that this represents new funding. Dans known as the funding “merely extra of what [Apple] already does,” from “day-to-day actions with 1000’s of suppliers in all 50 states to the operation of its home knowledge centres, in addition to its investments in Apple TV+ and different initiatives already manufactured within the nation.”
In a be aware to buyers, David Vogt, an analyst with the Swiss-based financial institution UBS, wrote, “Name us a sceptic. … We imagine [the figure] lacks substance.”
IBM
IBM introduced April 28 plans to take a position $150bn within the US, together with greater than $30bn in analysis and improvement on US-based manufacturing of mainframe and quantum computer systems.
That is “not clearly Trump-related,” Dans stated. “IBM’s technique pivots have been beneath method for the reason that 2010s.”
Luria stated, “Whereas we imagine IBM will proceed to put money into the rising space of quantum know-how, the bombastic determine is extra doubtless a gesture in the direction of the US administration,” Reuters reported.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which makes semiconductors for computing and electronics, has pledged to spend $100bn within the US. Analysts stated this quantity is essentially the most well-supported among the many investments that Trump cites. Though bringing semiconductor manufacturing again to the US started throughout Trump’s first time period, it was “vastly accelerated by” Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act, which prompted years of funding earlier than Trump’s second time period, Dans stated.
Over the previous 5 years, the corporate has spent at the least $65bn on fabrication services close to Phoenix, Arizona, funded partly by $6.6bn from the CHIPS and Science Act.
General, Dans stated, “Trump would possibly deserve some partial credit score for setting a extra aggressive tone on financial nationalism and provide chain reshoring, and for decreasing the company tax reform, which did have an effect on repatriation and a few funding selections. However most of those traits — the AI growth, the semiconductor reshoring, the cloud computing infrastructure — are long-term structural shifts that predate Trump and can proceed no matter who’s in workplace.”
Our ruling
Trump stated, “We’ve got now near $10 trillion, consider that, $10 trillion” in investments. “We’re speaking about primarily two months.”
The White Home has pointed to funding bulletins totalling $5.1 trillion, together with $2.1 trillion from firms and the remaining from international locations.
That’s at the least $4.9 trillion in need of Trump’s determine, and these bulletins symbolize future spending, a few of which is deliberate over 4 years, 5 years or a decade.
Consultants stated most of the greenback quantities are aspirational and that the investments introduced would possibly by no means be absolutely reached. Additionally they stated a few of this funding would have occurred no matter who was president.
We fee the assertion false.
