Nvidia, Eli Lilly bosses among CEOs to tout US investments with Trump

Chief executives from Nvidia, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly, General Electric and SoftBank Group are among the corporate leaders slated to visit the White House on April 30, as US President Donald Trump highlights the investments they have announced in the first 100 days of his second term in office. 

Companies from defence, tech, healthcare and consumer products industries as well as investment funds have been invited to attend and have their products on display in the residence’s foyer, according to a White House official who shared details of the event on the condition of anonymity. 

Mr Trump, who will be coming off from a Michigan rally the day before, is expected to tout numerous financial commitments his administration has secured from companies, which it estimates at US$2 trillion (S$2.6 trillion)

“President Trump has secured more investments in the United States of America in 100 days than Joe Biden did in four years,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 

Economists questioned whether all the pledged spending – which often came with a White House press conference and to great acclaim from Mr Trump – will come to fruition. 

Corporate pledges as at early April amounted to roughly US$1.6 trillion in spending and at least 426,000 jobs promised, according to a Bloomberg analysis of announcements made since Mr Trump’s election.

That amounts to more than all of the capital spending by companies in the entire S&P 500 in the last calendar year.

The event billed as “Invest in America” comes as major retailers and Wall Street leaders are warning of price increases and fallout from Mr Trump’s trade war.

The President maintains that implementing the highest US tariffs in more than a century will jump-start domestic manufacturing, but financial markets and businesses have been roiled by the chaotic roll-out and uncertainty.

Last week, Mr Trump met executives from Walmart, Home Depot and Target to discuss trade and tariffs. The discussion came amid a flurry of meetings among the White House, companies and countries seeking to negotiate lower trade tariffs during a 90-day pause in Mr Trump’s reciprocal import duties. 

The Trump administration is considering whether to reduce tariffs targeting the auto industry that are opposed by carmakers, Bloomberg News reported last week.

Even before Mr Trump took office, business leaders – domestic and foreign – have sought to court him, including visiting him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and donating to his inauguration fund. Several of them appeared with him to tout their US projects.

In a January press conference from Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump unveiled a US$20 billion investment from Damac Group founder Hussain Sajwani to build new US data centres.

In his second day in office, Mr Trump announced a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI and Oracle to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure. Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son is also expected to attend the April 30 event. 

His officials have also applauded chipmaking giant Nvidia for its pledge to manufacture its AI supercomputers in the US. The company is seeing a US$5.5 billion hit from the administration’s move to block it from selling its H20 chip in China.

Eli Lilly previously pledged to invest US$27 billion to build four new manufacturing plants, and Johnson & Johnson offered US$55 billion in new investments. 

IBM announced on April 28 that it plans to invest US$150 billion in computing over the next five years. BLOOMBERG