By Nandita Bose

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and General Motors Co (GM.N) on Tuesday became the latest companies to win praise from President-elect Donald Trump for adding U.S. jobs and investment, even though much of their plans were previously announced.

Wal-Mart will add 10,000 jobs this year while GM announced $1 billion in investment that would create 1,500 U.S. jobs.

Trump, who takes office on Friday, has repeatedly singled out and criticized U.S. companies across industries for not doing more to keep jobs in the United States and has put pressure on them to hire more U.S. workers.

"Thank you to General Motors and Walmart for starting the big jobs push back into the U.S.!" Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday reacting to the moves.

Bringing manufacturing back to the United States was a major theme in Trump's presidential campaign. In a separate tweet he said, "With all of the jobs I am bringing back into the U.S. (even before taking office), with all of the new auto plants coming back into our country ... I believe the people are seeing 'big stuff'."

Announcements by Wal-Mart and GM come as both companies are cutting jobs in the country, and their hiring, which was planned for some time, represent a small increase in their total U.S. workforce.

German drugs and agriculture group Bayer (BAYGn.DE) and U.S. seeds company Monsanto Co (MON.N) also pledged on Tuesday to maintain its more than 9,000 U.S. jobs and add 3,000 new U.S. high-tech positions.. Both companies announced plans to create thousands of high-tech U.S. jobs previously when they announced their merger.

Some of America's largest companies including General Motors, Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) have been publicly rebuked by Trump on Twitter. Many others are worried they may be his next target - especially if they have significant overseas manufacturing, have cut U.S. jobs or raised prices for consumers.

Trump's criticism of Ford Motor Co (F.N) on Twitter turned to praise after the carmaker scrapped a planned Mexican car factory and added 700 jobs in Michigan earlier this month.

It has also forced overseas companies that sell in the U.S. market to lift their U.S. investment. Hyundai Motor Group said it plans to increase investment in the United States by 50 percent to $3.1 billion over five years and may build a new plant.

NOT NEW

Both Wal-Mart and GM's new U.S. job plans are also part of previously announced investment plans.

Wal-Mart said it would create 10,000 jobs, equal to less than 1 percent of its U.S. workforce, this year as part of a $6.8 billion capital spending plan announced in October.