(The Center Square) – Japanese companies will finance investments valued at $36 billion in energy and minerals projects in Ohio, Texas and Georgia as part of a trade agreement that will cut U.S. tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%, according to the Trump administration.
The announcement is part of Japan’s 2025 agreement to invest $550 billion over the next four years at the direction of the U.S., with the funds aimed at rebuilding and expanding core American industries. In October, the Trump administration provided details on Japanese investments of up to $332 billion to develop critical energy infrastructure in the U.S.
The investments announced by the administration on Tuesday include $33 billion for construction of a massive natural gas power plant in Portsmouth, Ohio, that would generate up to 9.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to supply the needs of approximately 7.4 million homes, making it the largest gas-fired power generation facility in the world, according to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The Portsmouth Powered Land Project will cost $33 billion to build and be operated by SB Energy, a subsidiary of Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank, while two of Japan’s largest industrial firms, Hitachi and Toshiba, are to provide the natural gas turbines and grid technologies, the Commerce Department said.
Japanese investors have also agreed to commit $2.1 billion for a partnership stake in the Texas GulfLink crude oil export terminal, located about 30 miles offshore in the Gulf, which received a final regulatory approval earlier this month from the U.S. Maritime Administration.
The GulfLink terminal is expected to generate annual U.S. crude oil exports of $20 billion to $30 billion and promote American energy dominance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement.
In a third investment, with capital for the project coming from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance, Element 6, a subsidiary of South African mining company De Beers, will build a synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing plant in Georgia capable of supplying 100% of U.S. demand for synthetic diamond grit, a critical input in advanced industrial manufacturing.
“Japan is providing the capital,” said Lutnick. “The infrastructure is being built in the United States. The proceeds are structured so Japan earns its return, and America gains strategic assets, expanded industrial capacity, and strengthened energy dominance,” he said.
The natural gas-fired plant in Ohio would supply baseload power needed in central part of the state to supply fast-growing demand from data centers built to power artificial intelligence applications. The Portsmouth plant would interconnect with the nation’s largest power grid, run by PJM, with a ground-breaking scheduled for late 2026 and first electricity generation expected by 2028.
In addition to its investment in the Portsmouth power plant, SoftBank recently purchased a former electric vehicle plant in Ohio to support its “Stargate” project, a $500 billion joint venture that will own and operate AI infrastructure with partners that include OpenAI and Oracle.
Noritake, a Japanese manufacturer of industrial grinding wheels and advanced ceramics, was identified by Japanese officials as a primary buyer of diamond grit produced at the Georgia plant.
“The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, tariffs,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming months on questions about whether Trump exceeded his authority in invoking a 1970s law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on America’s trade partners.
