Jon Swartz

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed telecommunications giant Sprint is moving 5,000 offshore jobs back to the United States and OneWeb, a satellite Internet start-up, is adding 3,000 more jobs in the U.S.

The devil is in the detail, however: It is unclear where the 8,000 jobs will be based and if they are part of SoftBank's vow earlier this month to create 50,000 jobs. In a tweet Thursday, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said the 5,000 jobs are new.

The jobs were made possible, Trump said, through SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, a Japanese billionaire and technology investor, who met with Trump in New York earlier this month. After that meeting, the two businessmen announced SoftBank would invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 jobs.

Son, who became a billionaire through investments in Japan and China, is in the midst of raising a $100 billion investment fund with Saudi Arabia and others. He announced an intention to steer some of that investment to the U.S. before Trump was elected president.

Trump: SoftBank to add $50B, 50K jobs in U.S.

SoftBank owns 80% of Sprint and this month it invested $1 billion in OneWeb, a venture that intends to offer affordable Internet access. Son called the investment a "first step" in his commitment to Trump.

Sprint shares were up 1%, to $8.83, in mid-afternoon trading Thursday.

SoftBank has pushed for a merger between Sprint and rival T-Mobile that was thwarted by the Obama Administration. Son’s summit with Trump is very likely to rekindle the possibility of that merger, says wireless analyst Chetan Sharma. “Today’s visit is just groundwork for an inevitable deal,” Sharma says. “Son has a strong interest in pursuing the merger.”

Late Wednesday, Trump couched Sprint's influx of jobs to the U.S. as a byproduct of his meeting with Son in New York.

"They're bringing them (jobs) back to the United States and Masa and some other people were very much involved in that so I want to thank them," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.. "And OneWeb, a new company, is going to be hiring 3,000 people and that's very exciting."

In his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to create or bring back jobs to the U.S. Earlier this month, he announced a controversial deal to keep furnace manufacturer Carrier from outsourcing about 1,100 jobs to Mexico. But details of the plan remain sketchy, sparking debate over how many Carrier jobs will actually be saved.

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