Microsoft President Bradford Smith announced on April 9 that his company will invest 2.9 billion dollars on projects in Japan
over the next two years when he had a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio in Washington, D.C.

Kishida thanked him for the investment pledge.

The size of the investment is a record figure in Japan for the IT company.

Microsoft plans to expand the cloud infrastructure and the data center already built in Japan by introducing semiconductors for AI purposes.

Later, Prime Minister Kishida and his wife Yuko had informal dinner with President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

Kishida earlier presented President Biden and First Lady Jill with coffee cups and ballpoint pens made of Wajima lacquerware,
a traditional craft of Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture.

Prime Minister Kishida decided to give the presents after hearing the thoughts of a young craftsman he talked to
during his visit to the Noto Peninsula earthquake-stricken area.