Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is looking to invest big in the United States. Bin Salman told President Donald Trump Tuesday that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will increase its investments of $600 billion in the U.S. to near $1 trillion.
“I want to thank you because you’ve agreed to invest $600 billion into the United States, and because he’s my friend, he might make it a trillion, but I’m going to have to work on him,” Trump said during their Oval Office meeting.
Bin Salman, who goes by MBS, agreed that the figure would be close to $1 trillion.
“We have an extremely respected man in the Oval Office today and a friend of mine for a long time, a very good friend of mine,” Trump said. “I’m very proud of the job, what he’s done is incredible in terms of human rights and everything else.”
READ: Saudi Arabia plans to refocus $925 billion fund for better returns (
Bin Salman’s trip to the White House marks his first U.S. visit since Washington Post journalist and human rights activist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in 2018 in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul by members of the Saudi government.
Other high-profile guests at Trump’s dinner included X/Tesla CEO Elon Musk. This is one of the few public outings where the two have been seen after their very public feud on social media after Musk’s departure from Trump’s government.
Trump’s high-profile White House dinner with Bin Salman signaled a major moment in U.S.–Saudi relations, combining diplomacy, business interests, and political theater. Apart from Musk, the guest list was deliberately star-studded, featuring Tim Cook, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jensen Huang, and other global figures. Their presence underscored the crown prince’s strategy of positioning Saudi Arabia at the center of global technology, entertainment, and investment networks.
For Trump, the event offered an opportunity to publicly reaffirm his alignment with Saudi Arabia, highlight ongoing negotiations over significant arms deals, and showcase the promise of expanded Saudi investment in the U.S. economy. The announcement of Saudi Arabia’s new status as a major non-NATO ally, along with discussion of potential F-35 fighter jet sales, revealed the deep strategic backdrop behind the glamorous setting.
READ: All about Saudi crown prince’s new AI company Humain (
Elon Musk’s attendance added an extra layer of intrigue. Earlier in the year, Musk and Trump had clashed publicly, with sharp disagreements over policy and spending, making Musk’s appearance at the dinner a visible sign of easing tensions. His presence also reflects the overlapping ambitions of Musk and Saudi leadership in fields like artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and large-scale infrastructure. For Saudi Arabia, cultivating relationships with major U.S. tech leaders supports its long-term transformation goals under Vision 2030.
For Musk, access to Saudi investment and markets could bolster his most capital-intensive ventures. Ultimately, the dinner served as both a diplomatic showpiece and a stage for future political, technological, and economic collaboration.
Musk’s attendance, despite previous tensions with President Trump, further reflects how political, business, and technological interests increasingly intersect in shaping international partnerships. Taken together, the visit and dinner reveal a shared desire to redefine the future of cooperation between the two countries, signaling broader shifts in global power, investment flows, and technological leadership in the years ahead.