Washington — Saudi and US officials on Wednesday touted billions of dollars in new investments and growing financial ties between the two countries coinciding with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the country.
The CEOs of Chevron, Qualcomm, Cisco, General Dynamics and Pfizer are attending the US-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center in Washington, according to the event’s programme, as well as senior executives from IBM, Google, Salesforce, Andreessen Horowitz, Boeing, Halliburton, Adobe, Aramco, State Street and Parsons Corp.
“The agreements finalised yesterday [on Tuesday] open the door for US companies to lead globally [in] innovation, in safety and in deployment,” commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said.
Bin Salman is set to rub shoulders with many of corporate America’s most powerful executives at the event later on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump reintroduced him to Washington with a glowing endorsement from the White House.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will take part in a discussion on advances in AI at the forum.
It is the first trip by bin Salman to the US since the 2018 killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, which caused a global uproar. US intelligence concluded that bin Salman approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the crown prince.
Bin Salman denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
He arrived in Washington ready to talk about Trump’s favourite topic, investments in the US. Sitting next to Trump in the White House, bin Salman promised to increase his country’s US investment to $1-trillion from a $600bn pledge he made when Trump visited Saudi Arabia in May. But he offered no details or timetable.
A $1-trillion investment in the US would be difficult for Saudi Arabia to pull together, given its heavy spending on an ambitious series of huge projects at home, including futuristic megacities that have gone well over budget and faced delays, and stadiums for the 2034 World Cup.
The crown prince is also due to meet legislators at the US Capitol later on Wednesday.
Trump will attend the investment forum event that will include a variety of companies, many of which are expected to announce investments in Saudi Arabia.
Trump himself could benefit from closer business ties with Saudi Arabia. He and several of his confidants have forged business deals with Saudi partners in real estate and other investments.
But on Tuesday, Trump sought to distance himself from any suggestion of a conflict of interest. “I have nothing to do with the family business,” he said. “They’ve done very little with Saudi Arabia actually.”
In May, during Trump’s four-day Middle East trip, the US and Saudi Arabia announced billions of dollars in investments in both countries that included defence and AI deals.
Reuters
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