U.S. satellite company OneWeb and telecommunications group Sprint Corp (NYSE:S) will bring 8,000 jobs into the US, Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.
According to both companies, this was already part of a disclosed pledge by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (OTCMKTS:SFTBF), who announced on Dec. 19 that they would lead a $1.2 billion funding round and create thousands of new jobs.
SoftBank released information of this fund to Trump in a meeting on Wednesday.
“I was just called by the head people at Sprint and they are going to be bringing 5,000 jobs back to the United States, they are taking them from other countries,” Trump told reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“They’re bringing them back to the United States and Masa and some other people were very much involved in that so I want to thank them. And OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people and that’s very exciting.
“Because of me they are doing 5,000 jobs in this country,” Trump added.
Trump told reporters that Telecom giant Sprint plans to take 5,000 jobs from other countries and move them to the US. Sprint have denied this comment, saying that most of the employees already work in the States.
Trump’s involvement with companies such as Sprint has created a great deal of controversy, with critics saying the President should not have such a large role in shaping the economy.
Whilst Trump enjoyed plenty of celebration when he announced the deal to prevent a factory in Indiana from moving to Mexico, he came under fire when he overestimated how many jobs would be saved.
Sprint shares have doubled in the past year thanks to the increase in subscribers. Speculations are high that Sprint could merge with T Mobile US Inc (NYSE:PCS) under the Trump administration.