U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (right) hold up the signed document of the Critical Minerals and Rare Earths Agreement with Japan during a meeting at Akasaka Imperial Villa in Tokyo on October 28, 2025. President Trump is currently on a trip to Asia for the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia, and has since visited Japan and South Korea ahead of the APEC meeting.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images News | Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday announced three projects worth a total of $36 billion that will be financed by Japan, including an oil export facility in Texas, an industrial diamond factory in Georgia and a natural gas power plant in Ohio.
These projects are the first investments under Japan’s $550 billion commitment to invest in the U.S. as part of a trade deal that lowers Trump’s tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%, Trump said on Truth Social. He gave few details about the project.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement that the Portsmouth, Ohio, power plant will be valued at $33 billion and, with a capacity of 9.2 gigawatts, will be the largest natural gas-fired power generation facility in history.
The facility will be operated by SB Energy, a subsidiary of the Japanese high-tech investor. Softbank Groupbaseload power increases when power demand from data centers built to power artificial intelligence applications increases rapidly.
The White House announced that Japan will invest $2.1 billion in the Texas Gulf Link, a deep-sea crude oil export facility off the coast of Texas.
“This project is expected to generate $20 billion to $30 billion annually in U.S. crude oil exports, secure refinery export capacity, and strengthen America’s position as the world’s leading energy supplier,” Lutnick said.
The Texas Gulf Link, which is being developed by Sentinel Midstream, confirmed that it is part of this effort, saying it is “honored to be a trusted partner of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Government of Japan.”
Trump has said investments in Texas include liquefied natural gas projects, but Lutnick’s statement and the White House fact sheet made no mention of LNG.
Lutnick said Georgia’s third major project is an industrial synthetic diamond manufacturing plant that will meet 100% of the U.S. demand for synthetic diamond abrasive grain, a critical input for advanced manufacturing and semiconductor manufacturing. The United States currently relies on China for most of these supplies.
The high-pressure synthetic diamond factory, worth about $600 million, will be operated by Element Six, the White House said in a fact sheet. The industrial diamond company is part of the De Beers Group, the world’s largest diamond producer.
It was unclear how much of the project’s cost would be financed by Japanese companies and on what terms. Under the previous Japan-U.S. agreement, the project’s profits would be split 50-50 until Japan’s initial investment costs were recovered, after which they would be split 90-10 in favor of the United States.
The administration’s announcement followed a meeting between Lutnick and Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoshinari Akazawa last week to resolve remaining issues before announcing the deal.
“The scale of these projects is so large that they could not be done without the very specific language of tariffs,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
More great deals coming soon
“All of these projects are about Japan and the United States working together to build supply chains in strategically important areas,” Akazawa told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
He also said Japan would continue to work with the United States on further investment agreements, adding that the Japanese government had committed to investing up to $550 billion by the end of President Trump’s current term.
Akazawa declined to comment on the estimated timing of a future agreement, but said that as the negotiator, “I will keep in mind that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to the United States, scheduled for March, will be fruitful.”
The Japanese government said several Japanese companies had expressed interest in the original three projects, including Noritake 5331.T as the off-taker for the diamond project, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines 9104.T and Nippon Steel Corp 5401.T as suppliers for the crude oil export facility project, and Hitachi Ltd 6501.T and Toshiba for the power project.
Japan’s investment package consists of equity, loans and loan guarantees from state-owned institutions Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI).
Akazawa said the investment would have no impact on exchange rates, given the large foreign exchange reserves the government has available for lending.
