President Trump has made recent headlines by striking several financial deals with Saudi Arabia during his latest tour of the Middle East. According to the White House website, the agreements made in the past week are “historic and transformative for both countries and represent a new golden era of partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia.”
On Tuesday, May 13th, the White House announced that Saudi Arabia had signed off on $600 billion worth of investments into the United States. Saudi Arabian company DataVolt will be investing a said $20 billion worth of funds into American AI data centers, as well as energy infrastructure. Another notable deal would be the approval of maritime and aviation shipping for Elon Musk’s company Starlink. This expansion is expected to serve as a gateway to new markets for Starlink, thus opening a series of opportunities for the company.
The U.S plans to support the Saudi Arabian economy by investing in the development of infrastructure and technological advancements. For example, over $2 billion is being invested into projects like the King Salman International Airport and the tourist megacity Qiddiya. However, the most notable deal between the two nations would be the “World’s Largest Arms Agreement”. The record breaking $142 billion deal is set to provide the Saudi Arabians with military equipment and other defense technologies such as missiles, border security, and air force upgrades.
As for both countries, global organizations including Google, Salesforce, AMD, Oracle, and Uber have dedicated an estimated $80 billion into transformative technology for Saudi Arabia and the U.S. On top of the investments mentioned above, an additional 145 deals worth $300 billion have supposedly been signed off on by prominent U.S. investors and business heads during a prior conference.
The deals that have been made by Saudi Arabia and the United States this week have strengthened relations between the two nations. Although the deals show extreme economic potential in both countries, we are unsure of how they will affect us globally in the long-term.
