President Donald Trump announced deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars during his visit to the Middle East this week. He was joined by prominent United States (U.S.) business leaders who signed contracts for projects in the fields of defense, aviation, and artificial intelligence (AI), among other areas.
Qatar
Two days ago, Trump signed an investment agreement between the two countries worth more than 243.5 billion dollars. He also presented plans to increase total investments to 1.2 trillion dollars, the White House announced.
Qatar Airways agreed to purchase 210 Boeing aircraft in a deal worth 96 billion dollars. This is so far the largest agreement Trump has brokered during his visit to the Middle East.
The Qatari company Al Rabban Capital signed an agreement with the quantum computing firm Quantinuum. This is a one-billion-dollar investment in quantum technology and workforce development in the U.S.
The U.S. also signed several defense agreements with Qatar. Among others, a one-billion-dollar contract for Qatar to purchase drone defense technology from Raytheon RTX, and a two-billion-dollar contract to purchase drones from General Atomics.
Saudi Arabia
The White House announced on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia agreed to investments totaling 600 billion dollars. Some of the mentioned projects were already planned. In addition, at an investment conference attended by numerous U.S. billionaires and prominent business leaders, reportedly another 145 agreements were signed with a total value of more than 300 billion dollars.
The agreement signed by Trump includes a 142-billion-dollar deal. It foresees the purchase of military equipment and services from more than 10 U.S. companies in the defense sector, according to the White House.
The 600-billion-dollar investment includes 20 billion dollars from the Saudi company DataVolt for data centers for AI and energy infrastructure in the U.S., as well as 80 billion dollars in technologies in both countries in cooperation with Google, DataVolt, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber.
U.S. companies will participate in infrastructure projects in Saudi Arabia worth more than two billion dollars. This includes King Salman International Airport and the entertainment complex Qiddiya City.
Company contracts
Separate from the intergovernmental agreement, Elon Musk announced that Saudi Arabia agreed to use his satellite internet services Starlink for aviation and maritime transport.
Nvidia will sell 18.000 artificial intelligence chips to the new Saudi company Humain. It was launched on Monday and is chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The U.S. company AMD announced a 10-billion-dollar project with Saudi Arabia to deliver chips and software for AI data centers stretching from Saudi Arabia to the U.S.
Humain also announced cooperation with Global AI, Cisco, and Amazon, which will build an “AI zone” in Saudi Arabia, including new AI infrastructure, servers, and networks for more efficient AI system training.
End of visit
Trump ended his Middle East visit yesterday in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In addition to Musk, billionaires such as Sam Altman from OpenAI, Alex Karp from Palantir, Larry Fink from BlackRock, and Stephen Schwarzman from Blackstone attended the investment forum between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Schwarzman and Musk also dined with Trump and the Emir of Qatar at a state dinner.
By Wednesday evening local time, there was no official confirmation from Trump or Qatar about the luxury 747 aircraft that Qatar allegedly plans to gift to the Trump administration.
Trump’s Middle East visit has so far mainly focused on economic investments, rather than broader geopolitical strategy. The region is home to numerous new projects by the Trump family businesses, including Trump’s golf resort in Qatar and residential towers in Dubai and Jeddah, Forbes writes.
