Nippon Steel Wednesday finalized its $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, completing a blockbuster trade that promises improvements to the company’s Alabama operations.

The deal includes provisions to pump roughly $11 billion – what the company called “unprecedented massive investments” – into U.S. Steel’s domestic operations over the next three years, which the combined companies say will protect and create more than 100,000 jobs.

Alabama could get as much as $500 million for tubular upgrades, according to published reports.

Other U.S. Steel facilities in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Arkansas and Minnesota are also poised for upgrades.

The company’s stock stopped trading on Wednesday and is being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The transaction was finally consummated with a national security agreement with the U.S. government which includes conditions such as:

• U. S. Steel to remain a U.S.-incorporated entity with headquarters in Pittsburgh.
• A majority of U.S. citizens as board members.
• Key management personnel, including the CEO, will be U.S. citizens.
• U. S. Steel will maintain capacity to produce and supply steel from its U.S. production locations to meet market demand in the U.S.
• Nippon Steel will not prevent, prohibit, or otherwise interfere with U. S. Steel’s ability to pursue trade action under U.S. law.

The U.S. government also maintains a perpetual “golden share” in the company.

As a result, it retains the right to appoint one independent director, and consent over any reductions in capital investments, name changes, transfer of production or jobs outside the U.S., or acquisition and decisions on closures or idling of plants.

It’s the completion of a deal that began roughly two years ago and weathered several challenges, such as opposition from both Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Trump initially vowed to block the Japanese bid to buy the company, but last month he announced an agreement for what he described as “partial ownership” by Nippon.

U.S. Steel’s operations in Alabama in recent years were revamped through new technology.

It pumped $412 million into its electric arc furnace in Fairfield, which began production in 2020.

The furnace can produce as much as 1.6 million tons of steel a year and employs a mix of mini-mill and integrated mill technology.

The project was originally shut down in Dec. 2015 due to unfavorable market conditions, but was announced again in 2019.

U.S. Steel, founded in 1901, has deep roots in Alabama and was once the largest employer in Birmingham, with about 15,000 people on the payroll at its peak.