Saudis agree to billions in U.S. investment as Trump begins Gulf states trip

U.S. President Donald Trump secured economic commitments from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as the oil power rolled out the red carpet for him at the start of a tour of Gulf states aimed at drumming up investments.

The two countries signed a nearly $142-billion US defence agreement, part of a Saudi commitment to invest $600 billion overall in the U.S. 

Trump called the Saudi's Prince Mohammed bin Salman a friend and said they have a good relationship, according to a pool report from the Wall Street Journal, adding that Saudi investment would help create jobs in the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth are among the American officials travelling with the president.

With a who's who of powerful American business leaders in tow, including Tesla CEO and Trump adviser Elon Musk, Trump will go on to Qatar on Wednesday and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.

Qatar's royal family is expected to gift Trump a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane to be outfitted for use as Air Force One, an arrangement that has drawn scrutiny from ethics experts and even some members of Trump's party on Capitol Hill.

"I don't think it looks good or smells good," said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

WATCH | CBC's Chris Brown breaks down what you need to know about Trump's visit: 

Trump wants investment, purchasing agreements from Gulf States, says expert

1 day ago

Duration 6:46

As was the case in his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump's first official trip abroad is to the Middle East. But he's more interested in securing investment deals and purchasing agreements than in geopolitics, says David Des Roches of the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies.

Josh Hawley, Republican senator from Missouri, said "it would be better if Air Force One were a big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America."

Trump is expected to donate the plane to his presidential library for use after his term ends.

Saudis strike deal with Nvidia

Saudi Arabia and the U.S. have maintained strong ties for decades based on an ironclad arrangement in which the kingdom delivers oil and the superpower provides security.

"While energy remains a cornerstone of our relationship, the investments and business opportunities in the kingdom have expanded and multiplied many, many times over," Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih said as he opened Tuesday's forum.

At the front of a palatial hall sat Larry Fink, the CEO of Blackrock, Stephen A. Schwartzman, CEO of Blackstone, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan and Khalid.

Saudi Arabia is seeking to make its economy less dependent on oil revenue. Its sovereign wealth fund's AI startup announced a partnership on Tuesday with U.S. chip giant Nvidia to to develop artificial intelligence and strengthen cloud
computing infrastructure with the help of foreign investment.

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia were expected to avoid the topic of normalization between Riyadh and Israel altogether, sources previously told Reuters, even as it is Trump's most enduring geopolitical goal in the region.

Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said last week he expected progress imminently on expanding the Abraham Accords, a set of deals brokered by Trump in his first term by which Arab states including the U.A.E., Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco recognized Israel.

Trump's scheduled agenda on the trip does not include Israel.

Trump attended Pope Francis's funeral last month in Rome, where he had informal discussions with the leaders of France and Ukraine, among others, but this is the first extended, policy-driven trip in his second presidential term.