SoftBank Gave Trump Library $50 Million Before Ohio Data Center Lease

1 articles · Updated · The Verge · Aug 6

$50 million went from SoftBank to the Trump Presidential Library in January, months before the company announced a federal land lease for an Ohio AI data center.
SoftBank disclosed the timing in response to a June letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, who said the sequence raised bribery concerns.
The March project centers on a Department of Energy site in Portsmouth, where SB Energy plans what it calls the world's largest AI data center and a nearby gas-fired plant of at least 9.2 gigawatts.
Lawmakers contrasted the gift with SoftBank's past presidential-library donations, saying those came only after presidents left office; they also noted the original Trump library fund had been dissolved in Florida last September.