In January 2026, SoftBank Group gave $50 million to Trump's planned presidential library in Miami, which the Democratic lawmakers investigating it call the largest publicly disclosed contribution to the library to date. Politico first reported the gift on May 22, 2026, citing two people familiar with it, who said the money was meant to support a focus at the library on the U.S.-Japan relationship.
Two months after the donation, on March 20, 2026, the Energy and Commerce departments announced a partnership with SoftBank's SB Energy subsidiary to redevelop the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio, a Cold War uranium-enrichment site, into a 10-gigawatt AI computing campus on roughly 3,700 acres of federal land. SoftBank called it the world's largest AI data center, and SB Energy will also build a gas-fired power plant of at least 9.2 gigawatts. SoftBank confirmed the January timing in a written response to Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, who released it on August 6 after pressing the company in a letter announced July 1.
The lawmakers' letter said the circumstances “raise concerns about the potential for bribery and whether donors are seeking favorable treatment from the Trump Administration through contributions that personally benefit a sitting President.” Warren added: “Are we expected to believe it's a coincidence that two months after SoftBank donated $50 million to the Trump library, his administration announced a massive lease deal for SoftBank's data center?”
In its response, SoftBank did not answer whether the donation was connected to any commitment from the administration, according to MS NOW. It pointed to its past gifts to the Reagan and George W. Bush presidential foundations; the Democrats noted those were made after those presidents left office, while SoftBank gave to Trump's library during his term and before any library was built. The Democrats also argue the federal-land arrangement let SoftBank avoid permitting steps a private project of that size would face; the Energy Department has described the lease as putting a decommissioned site back to work, with SB Energy funding accelerated cleanup. The bribery framing is the lawmakers' allegation, not an established finding (see Trump Says His Presidential 'Library' Will 'Most Likely' Be a Hotel, on $67 Million of Public Land His Foundation Got for $10).
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry said SoftBank disclosed the donation's timing in response to a “June letter.” The Warren release announcing the letter is dated July 1, 2026 (The Verge described it as a June letter), and SoftBank's response was released August 6; the summary now gives those dates. It also stated as fact that the gift was the library's largest publicly disclosed contribution; that is the lawmakers' description (Politico called it one of the largest known gifts), and it is now attributed. The name of the Politico reporter was removed because the saved copy of the article did not show a byline.