The crown prince has committed to invest $1 trillion with U.S. companies, a pledge that is largely about using Saudi Arabia’s oil and natural gas reserves to pivot his nation into becoming an AI data hub.
“We will work closely with friends and partners like those in this room to build the largest, most powerful, most innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” Trump said at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum on Wednesday.
Sitting in the front row of the audience at the Kennedy Center were Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Trump took credit for the new investments and stock market performance this year — both of which have been a function of the AI buildout. For all of Trump’s claims that his tariffs are generating new investments, much of that foreign capital is going to data centers for AI’s computing demands or the power facilities needed to run those data centers.
The president called the stock market gains “amazing,” yet leading stock indices fell Tuesday over growing anxiety about whether AI companies are fueling a broader financial bubble.
