Trump lauds 8,000 telecom jobs coming back to US

President-elect Donald Trump has announced that Sprint will bring 5,000 jobs to the US, and OneWeb will be hiring 3,000 employees as part of SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son’s pledge to invest $50 billion in the US and create 50,000 jobs.

Trump announced Wednesday that Sprint and OneWeb would bring 8,000 total jobs into the US. Both telecommunication companies are owned by the Japanese corporate giant SoftBank, which promised to invest $50 billion in America through a fund called Softbank Vision.

"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 announced to reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

In addition, OneWeb is said to be hiring 3,000 people over four years for their tech start-up, which is building a network of satellites that will deliver high-speed internet access. Sprint confirmed the announcement, saying in a statement that “the company anticipates these jobs will support a variety of functions across the organization including its Customer Care and Sales teams. Sprint will begin discussions immediately with its business partners, states and cities to determine the right locations in the US to create these jobs.”

In addition, they confirmed that these 5,000 jobs are a part of Masayoshi Son’s pledge to invest in American jobs and the economy through Softbank Vision. Softbank Vision has come under fire by many for relying heavily on investments from Saudi Arabia, which is planning to contribute $45 billion to the fund over the same period from its Public Investment Fund, according to its press release.