Japan to pour $36 billion into 3 US states in exchange for relief from Trump's tariffs
Several large-scale projects will be undertaken as part of the deal.
Feb. 19 2026, Published 8:57 a.m. ET
Texas, Ohio, and Georgia are set to receive a massive financial boost as they will be getting a whopping $36 billion in foreign investment. The investment is part of the new trade deal signed between the United States and Japan, which will see the operation of several facilities, including a deep-water crude export terminal, a large natural gas facility, and a synthetic industrial diamond plant. In return, the Trump administration will lower tariffs on most Japanese imports to 15%.
It is a mutually beneficial deal as both countries are looking to reduce reliance on strategic competitors. Ohio will see the operation of a 9.2-gigawatt natural gas facility, which would make it the largest natural gas-fired generating facility in U.S. history, as per a Newsweek report. It also states that there might be increased baseload power due to high demand from AI-driven data centers.
Texas will see a GulfLink offshore export terminal that could handle $20 billion to $30 billion in annual U.S. crude shipments at full capacity. This is great news for the country’s energy export infrastructure. Meanwhile, Georgia will see a synthetic industrial diamond facility, which hopes to meet 100% of U.S. demand for diamond grit, which is used in advanced manufacturing and semiconductors. The report states that this will help the country reduce its reliance on Chinese supplies.
Of the $36 billion deal, $33 billion will go towards the 9.2-gigawatt natural gas facility in Ohio, as per Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. $2.1 billion will go towards the Texas GulfLink deepwater crude oil export facility, and around $600 million will be used for the synthetic industrial diamond plant in Georgia. This will be operated by Element Six, part of De Beers Group. However, that is not all that Japan has agreed to invest in as part of the deal.
Representative image of a plant. (Image Source: Getty Images| Photo by VisionsofAmerica/Joe Sohm)
The report states that the far-eastern country has pledged to invest up to $550 billion in U.S. projects in exchange for the U.S. lowering tariffs. Leaders of both countries hailed the recent deal as a significant one for cutting reliance on strategic competitors like China. Still, there is a long way to go for both countries. “Our MASSIVE Trade Deal with Japan has just launched! The scale of these projects is so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that these projects “truly embody the purpose of this Strategic Investment Initiative, namely the promotion of mutual benefit between Japan and the United States, the enhancement of economic security, and the promotion of economic growth.” Japan’s economy and trade minister Ryosei Akazawa said that the two countries were “working together to build supply chains in strategically important fields.”
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