SoftBank donated $50 million to Trump’s library months before federal data center deal

<figure> <img alt="A photo showing the groundbreaking at the Portsmouth, Ohio data center" data-caption="The Portsmouth, Ohio site where SoftBank will build its data center. | Image: US Department of Energy" data-portal-copyright="Image: US Department of Energy" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/08/softbank-ohio-data-center.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" /> <figcaption> The Portsmouth, Ohio site where SoftBank will build its data center. | Image: US Department of Energy </figcaption> </figure> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">SoftBank contributed $50 million to the Trump Presidential Library in January, just months before announcing that it's leasing land from the federal government to build a sprawling data center in Ohio. The Japanese company revealed the timing <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28540587-softbank-response/">in response</a> to a June letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Letter-from-Senators-Warren-Blumenthal-Representative-Stansbury-to-SoftBank-re.-Library-Donation.pdf">which raised concerns</a> about bribery.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">"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?" Sen. Warren said in a statement to <em>The …</em></p> <p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/policy/976138/softbank-trump-library-data-center-ohio">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>