From Bloomberg via The Edge, Singapore, October 28:
Japan unveiled a list of potential projects for its US$550 billion US investment vehicle, providing a first look into what specific proposals could be funded by the mechanism that’s a key part of the two countries’ trade deal.
The fact sheet, released by Japan’s trade ministry Tuesday, gave a list of Japanese companies interested in launching projects — in areas ranging from energy to AI to critical minerals. The corporate names included SoftBank Group, Westinghouse and Toshiba Corp, and the size of the potential projects ranged from US$350 million to as much as US$100 billion.
The announcement came hours after US President Donald Trump hailed the US’s alliance with Japan on Tuesday, while praising the country’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The pair later signed documents on trade and critical minerals intended to formalise some elements of a deal brokered under Takaichi’s predecessor, which includes a pledge to fund US$550 billion worth of projects in the US.
“I want to thank Japan because they’re making big investments into the United States,” Trump said Tuesday aboard the USS George Washington in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo. “They’re a big investor into our country and we like that,” he said, adding that Takaichi told him Toyota Motor Corp would put plants all over the US “to the tune of over US$10 billion.”
Toyota wasn’t mentioned in the trade ministry’s fact sheet, but US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick met with corporate leaders from many of the firms that were listed later Tuesday.
“You’re at the beginning. You are it. You are the foundation. And this is really, really exciting,” Lutnick said.
“That’s not that often you get to be in a room with so much power in one location,” he added.
Energy-related projects appeared to loom large in the list in terms of total scale of business. Westinghouse’s construction of AP1000 nuclear reactors and small modular reactors was expected to be worth up to US$100 billion, involving Japanese suppliers and operators including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Another small modular reactors project that could involve Hitachi GE Vernova was framed as also worth up to US$100 billion....
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As noted previously in discussions of our idiosyncratic little portfolio, Westinghouse nuclear is owned by infrastructure heavyweight Brookfield and by uranium miner Cameco.
Hitachi GE Vernova Nuclear Energy is a joint venture between the two names and was approved by the Canadian government in May to proceed with the first Small Nuclear Reactor in a G7 country.
Sort of a Texas hedge, all the way around.
