Saudi and US officials announced billions of dollars in new deals and a push for deeper financial ties on Wednesday, in Washington, coinciding with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s first US visit since 2018, according to forum organizers and company statements. The announcements capped two days of meetings that included a White House session with President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, two days earlier, bin Salman told Trump he would lift Saudi investment in the United States to $1 trillion, up from a $600 billion pledge he made during Trump’s May trip to Saudi Arabia, though he offered no timetable. Trump, speaking at a US–Saudi business forum on Wednesday, publicly urged him to go higher, asking, “Could you make it $1.5 trillion?”
Officials said companies signed or highlighted about $270 billion in agreements at the Kennedy Center conference. Organizers said the package included a planned purchase of 600,000 Nvidia AI chips by HUMAIN, a Saudi government-backed firm, and a partnership between HUMAIN and Elon Musk’s xAI to develop data centers in the kingdom, including a 500-megawatt facility.
Critical minerals and energy ties expand
US rare-earths group MP Materials said it will build a refinery in Saudi Arabia with the US Department of Defense and state miner Maaden to broaden Middle East processing of critical minerals. Saudi Aramco said it signed 17 memoranda of understanding and
Chief executives from Chevron, Qualcomm, Cisco, General Dynamics, and Pfizer joined senior leaders from IBM, Google, Salesforce, Andreessen Horowitz, Boeing, Halliburton, Adobe, State Street, Parsons, and Aramco. Trump reintroduced the crown prince to official Washington with a strong endorsement, while bin Salman met prominent US executives and lawmakers.
It is the crown prince’s first US trip since the 2018 killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, which drew condemnation worldwide. US intelligence concluded bin Salman approved the capture or killing, a charge he denies, while acknowledging responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
Scale and feasibility questions
Analysts said a $1 trillion US investment target could be hard to realize given heavy Saudi spending at home on megaprojects and infrastructure for the 2034 World Cup. Still, participants said the kingdom’s land and energy resources make it an attractive location for AI data centers and advanced manufacturing.
“I have nothing to do with the family business. They’ve done very little with Saudi Arabia, actually,” Trump said on Tuesday.