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SoftBank contributed $50 million to the Trump Presidential Library in January, just months before announcing that it\u2019s leasing land from the federal government to build a sprawling data center in Ohio. The Japanese company revealed the timing in response to a June letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), which raised concerns about bribery.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre we expected to believe it\u2019s a coincidence that two months after Softbank donated $50 million to the Trump library, his administration announced a massive lease deal for Softbank\u2019s data center?\u201d Sen. Warren said in a statement to The Verge<\/em>. \u201cAgain and again, it seems like Trump is putting handshake deals with CEOs over what\u2019s best for Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n In March, SoftBank said its SB Energy subsidiary formed a public-private partnership to build \u201cthe world\u2019s largest\u201d AI data center at the US Department of Energy\u2019s site in Portsmouth, Ohio. As part of the partnership, SB Energy will build a massive gas-fired powerplant nearby, with a capacity of at least 9.2 gigawatts.<\/p>\n As the lawmakers note in their initial letter, SoftBank has made contributions to the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, but only \u201cafter those presidents had left office and after the relevant library foundations and institutions had been established.\u201d With Trump\u2019s presidential library, however, SoftBank donated during Trump\u2019s term and \u201cbefore any presidential library has been constructed.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, the organization responsible for taking donations, the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund, had been dissolved by the state of Florida last September after failing to file an annual report. SoftBank says in its response that it made its $50 million contribution to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc.<\/p>\n Donald Trump\u2019s son, Eric Trump, is a trustee of the nonprofit, Citizens for Ethics reports. \u201cAs with its prior contributions to Presidential libraries, SoftBank understands that this donation will be used to support the construction and operation of the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library,\u201d SoftBank\u2019s letter reads.<\/p>\n