US, Japan Zero In on Energy and Chips for $550 Billion Fund

The US and Japan are closing in on the first three projects to be funded by Tokyo’s $550 billion investment vehicle, according to people familiar with the matter, as the nations seek to set in motion a key component of their bilateral trade deal reached last year.

The three projects, considered finalists in a review process, are related to a data center infrastructure project led by SoftBank Group Corp., a deep sea oil terminal in the Gulf of Mexico and synthetic diamonds for semiconductors, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity in discussing the content of ...