President Donald Trump announced investment agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates worth more than $2 trillion for projects in defense, aviation and artificial intelligence, among other ventures during his trip this week to the Middle East, where he was joined by dozens of prominent business executives who took part in the deals.
KEY FACTS
United Arab Emirates: Trump announced more than $200 billion in commercial deals during his visit Thursday.
The agreement includes a $14.5 billion commitment from Etihad Airways to invest in 28 American-made Boeing 787 and 777X aircrafts with GE engines.
Emirates Global Aluminum will invest in a $4 billion aluminum smelter project in Oklahoma.
The U.S. and the UAE announced they would work together to construct the largest artificial intelligence data center outside of the U.S. in Abu Dhabi, with the Emirati firm G42 building the facility that will cover 10 square miles and have a 5-gigawatt capacity, the Department of Commerce said.
Qatar: Trump on Wednesday signed an agreement for investments between the two countries worth more than $243.5 billion and outlined plans to increase the investment to $1.2 trillion, the White House said.
Doha will invest $10 billion in a U.S. military facility and purchase $42 billion in weapons from the U.S., Trump said Thursday during a speech at a U.S. military air base in Qatar.
Qatar Airways agreed to buy 210 Boeing jets worth $96 billion, representing the largest deal yet facilitated by Trump since he arrived in the Middle East, The New York Times reported.
Qatari-based Al Rabban Capital signed an agreement with the Quantinuum computing company to invest $1 billion in quantum technology and workforce development in the U.S.
The U.S. also signed several defense-related agreements with Qatar, including a $1 billion deal for Qatar to acquire drone defense technology from Raytheon RTX, and a $2 billion agreement for Qatar to purchase remotely piloted aircraft from General Atomics.
Saudi Arabia: The White House said Tuesday Saudi Arabia agreed to $600 billion in investments, though some of the projects listed were already in the works, while an additional 145 deals worth more than $300 billion were reportedly signed at an adjacent investor conference attended by several U.S. billionaires and prominent business executives.
A $142 billion agreement for the Saudis to buy military equipment and services from more than a dozen U.S. defense firms is included in the agreement Trump signed, the White House said.
The $600 billion investment also includes $20 billion from Saudi firm DataVolt for AI data centers and energy infrastructure in the U.S., and $80 billion in technologies in both countries from Google, DataVolt, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD and Uber.
More than $2 billion in work by American firms in Saudi infrastructure projects, including King Salman International Airport and the Qiddiya City entertainment complex, was also part of the agreement.
Separate from the agreement between the two governments, Elon Musk announced Saudi Arabia had agreed to use his Starlink internet satellite services for aviation and maritime shipping.
Nvidia will sell 18,000 artificial intelligence chips to the new Saudi-backed company, Humain, debuted Monday and chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
American-based AMD announced a $10 billion project with Saudi Arabia to provide chips and software for AI data centers “stretching from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States.”
Humain also announced deals with Global AI, Cisco and Amazon, which will build an “AI zone” in Saudi Arabia, including new AI infrastructure and servers, and networks to facilitate more efficient AI training, the company said.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Trump said Thursday Iran “has sort of agreed to the terms” of a deal with the U.S. to scale back nuclear weapons production. “I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal,” Trump said during a speech in the United Arab Emirates. Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also told NBC News on Thursday Iran was prepared to sign a nuclear deal if the U.S. agreed to lift all economic sanctions on Iran.
TANGENT
In addition to Musk, billionaires including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Palantir’s Alex Karp BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman attended the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum. Schwarzman and Musk also sat with Trump and the emir of Qatar at a state dinner.