Saudi Crown Prince tries to improve image of Saudi Arabia with top corporate executives
MBS's First US Trip Since Khashoggi's Murder in 2018
MBS promises will boost US investments to $1 trillion
Top US executives from different sectors attend the event
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, November 19 - Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was reintroduced to Washington by President Donald Trump with a glowing White House endorsement, will rub shoulders on Wednesday with some of the most powerful corporate executives in America.
According to the program for the event, the CEOs of Chevron and Qualcomm will attend, along with senior executives from IBM and Alphabet's Google. Also attending are Boeing, Halliburton Adobe, Aramco State Street, Parsons Corp., and Salesforce.
Tesla CEO Elon Mosk and Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang are scheduled to take part in the AI discussion at the Forum. This is bin Salman's first visit to the U.S. after the killing of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul by Saudi agents, which caused an uproar around the world. U.S. Intelligence concluded that bin Salman had approved the killing or capture of Khashoggi.
The crown prince, who is de facto the ruler of the Kingdom, admitted to being responsible for the operation.
Bin Salman was ready to discuss Trump's favorite subject, the U.S. investment market. Bin Salman, who sat next to Trump at the White House in Washington, promised to raise his country's U.S. investments to $1 trillion. This is an increase from $600 billion he pledged when Trump visited Saudi Arabia back in May. He did not provide any details or timeline.
Saudi Arabia would find it difficult to invest $1 trillion in the U.S., given the heavy expenditure on a series of ambitious projects at home. These include futuristic megacities which have been over budgeted and delayed and stadiums for 2034 World Cup.
Trump will be attending the Investment Forum event, which will feature a large number of companies. Many of these are expected to announce investment in Saudi Arabia. Closer business ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia could be beneficial to Trump. His confidants and he have made business deals in the real estate sector and other investment areas with Saudi Arabian partners. On Tuesday, Trump tried to disassociate himself from any suggestions of a potential conflict of interest. He told reporters that he had nothing to do the family business, and added that they did very little work with Saudi Arabia.
During Trump's four day Middle East visit in May, the U.S. announced billions in investment in both countries, including deals in AI and defense. (Reporting and writing by David Shepardson, Chris Sanders; editing by Lincoln Feast).
(source: Reuters)
