Trump says Taiwan will buy 30% of Alaska LNG gas, the share in a 2025 letter

President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a rally crowd in Wasilla on Tuesday that Taiwan had agreed to buy 30% of the gas from the planned Alaska LNG pipeline and invest $4.4 billion in the project. Trump said the purchases would run 20 years.

The share and term match a nonbinding letter of intent that Taiwan's state-owned CPC Corporation signed with the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation on March 20, 2025, according to the state corporation's March 2025 board report. That letter covered 6 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas a year for 20 years, which is 30% of the 20 million metric tons a year the project is designed to produce, and a potential investment, with no dollar figure.

"They agreed to buy 30% of everything produced on that line, and they will invest $4.4 billion on top of the Koreans to make sure this line gets built," Lutnick said, adding that the agreement came together over the past week. Trump said it "guarantees the success" of the project. Neither man said whether an agreement had been signed.

The announcement follows an Oval Office event two weeks ago where Trump and Lutnick said South Korea would finance just over $50 billion of the project. South Korea said it had agreed only to review the investment and protested the announcement. On Tuesday, Lutnick said South Korea "has committed $50.1 billion."

Trump also said the 800-mile line has every permit it needs. "Every single permit that you need has been granted," he said. The federal record supports that for federal permits. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorized the project in May 2020, and the federal Permitting Dashboard lists environmental review and permitting as complete as of Dec. 10, 2025. State approvals are a separate step. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources issued conditional right-of-way leases for the pipeline in 2021, and the project cannot get the state's go-ahead to build on that land until the natural resources commissioner decides in writing that the developer is able to carry it out, including paying for it. The developer asked the department to convert the leases on Oct. 2. The department's notice did not say when the commissioner would decide.

The project has not reached a final investment decision on its first phase, the in-state pipeline. An October federal report kept a 2028 completion target for that line and listed no long-term contracts.

Trump also said the Federal Communications Commission will vote this month on an additional $162 million to expand high-speed internet in Alaska. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who also spoke, said the commission is working to connect every Alaskan to high-speed internet.

The rally was for Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, who faces Democrat Mary Peltola on Nov. 3. Peltola has also backed the pipeline.