President Trump said Tuesday that the head of electronics manufacturer Foxconn had privately told him that the company may invest as much as $30 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations — three times as much as what it had promised last week.

Trump made the remark during a White House event for small businesses, praising Foxconn for its plan to open a factory in Wisconsin and invest $10 billion.

"He told me off the record — he thinks he may go $30 billion,” Trump said of Foxconn CEO Terry Gou. "But he told me that off the record, so I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone."

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"That’s called big business, by the way,” Trump added to laughs from the audience.

Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company, which is the main manufacturer of Apple iPhones, announced the new factory in a White House ceremony last week and said that it would support 3,000 new jobs.

Trump caught attention for making another off-the-cuff remark about a private conversation the day before that announcement.

The president told The Wall Street Journal that Apple CEO Tim Cook had promised him that the company would create three new U.S. plants. Apple declined to comment on that remark.