President Donald Trump described Toyota's 69-year-old chairman as a 92-year-old 'owner' who personally pledged a £7.7 billion ($10 billion) US investment, a claim riddled with factual errors that Toyota had already disputed months earlier.
During remarks at his 11th Cabinet meeting on 26 March 2026, Trump retold his familiar anecdote about meeting Akio Toyoda in Japan, this time placing the Toyota chairman's age at 'about 92.'
The remarks revived scrutiny of a pattern that began in October 2025, when Trump first claimed Toyota had pledged the £7.7 billion ($10 billion) figure during his Asia trip, only for the automaker to publicly contradict him within 24 hours.
Who Is Akio Toyoda?
According to Toyota's own official executive biography, Akio Toyoda was born on 3 May 1956 in Nagoya, Japan. That makes him 69 years old as of March 2026. He holds a law degree from Keio University and a master's in business administration from Babson College in Massachusetts.
Toyoda served as Toyota's president and CEO from June 2009 until April 2023, when he transitioned to the role of chairman of the board. The active CEO of Toyota is now Koji Sato, who succeeded Toyoda in April 2023. Toyoda did not retire or die and remains a highly active chairman, meeting Trump in Tokyo in October 2025 in that capacity.
Toyoda is the grandson of Toyota's founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, giving him a strong family connection to the company. Family legacy does not, however, confer shareholding control. Japan analyst Jeffrey J. Hall noted on X that Akio Toyoda owns less than 1% of Toyota Motor Corporation's shares. Trump had previously cited a different figure, telling audiences at Davos in January 2026 that Toyoda owned 92% of the company, a claim that was also incorrect and publicly corrected.
The headline's suggestion that a '92-year-old owner' was referenced despite his death in 2023 appears to confuse Akio with his father, Shoichiro Toyoda, the former Toyota chairman who died on 14 April 2023 at the age of 97. Akio Toyoda is alive.
A Deal That Was Never Explicitly Made
Trump's claim that Toyota pledged a £7.7 billion ($10 billion) US investment first surfaced publicly on 28 October 2025, when he told American troops aboard the USS George Washington near Tokyo, 'I was just told by the Prime Minister that Toyota is going to be putting auto plants all over the United States, to the tune of over $10 billion.'
He repeated the claim the following day, 29 October 2025, at the APEC CEO Summit in South Korea, saying Toyoda had 'agreed to invest $10 billion in building auto plants' across 'about six or seven different states.' Toyota responded swiftly. Hiroyuki Ueda, the company's head of public affairs, told reporters on the sidelines of the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo that no such explicit commitment had been made.
'During the first Trump administration, I think the figure was roughly around $10 billion, so while we didn't say the same scale, we did explain that we'll keep investing and providing employment as before. So, probably because of that context, the figure of about $10 billion came up,' Ueda said, as reported by The Hill on 29 October 2025. 'Therefore, we didn't specifically say that we'll invest $10 billion over the next few years.' Ueda also confirmed that investment was not even discussed when Toyoda briefly spoke with Trump at the US Embassy event in Tokyo.
Toyota's finance chief Kenta Kon also told reporters it was 'difficult to confirm the accuracy of the $10 billion figure.' In a statement to The Hill, the company 'stressed its commitment to investing in America but did not specify a number pledged' during recent talks with the administration.
Toyota's Formal Announcement
On 13 November 2025 Toyota did formally announce a £7.7 billion ($10 billion) additional US investment over five years, bringing its total American spending to nearly £46 billion ($60 billion) since it began operations in the country. The announcement, confirmed by AFP and reported by the Daily Sabah, coincided with the opening of its first US battery plant and came roughly two weeks after Trump's unilateral claim.
Industry analysts were sceptical about how 'new' the investment truly was. AutoForecast Solutions manufacturing expert Sam Fiorani told Yahoo Finance that 'Toyota promised up to $10 billion in US investment over the next five years, some of which was always necessary and some of which will never happen.' The phrasing served a political purpose, giving Trump a win to announce without Toyota committing to any specific incremental spending beyond what was already planned.
The diplomatic choreography around Akio Toyoda has been conspicuous. In November 2025, Toyoda hosted a NASCAR-themed event at Fuji Speedway in Japan where he appeared wearing a red MAGA hat and a Trump-Vance T-shirt alongside US Ambassador George Glass, a display documented by the US Embassy's own social media accounts.
On 23 March 2026, CNBC reported that Toyota had announced a further £770 million ($1 billion) investment in its Kentucky and Indiana plants, with Toyota Chair Akio Toyoda, 'whose company employs nearly 48,000 people in the US, has been trying to win over Trump.'
