WASHINGTON: Saudi and US officials on Wednesday touted billions in new investments and growing financial ties between the two countries coinciding with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington.
The CEOs from 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 program, as well as senior executives from IBM, Alphabet’s Google, Salesforce, Andreessen Horowitz, Boeing, Halliburton, Adobe, Aramco, State Street and Parsons Corp.
“The agreements finalized yesterday 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 later at the event on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump reintroduced him to official 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.
The crown prince denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.