President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised Saudi Arabia and its leaders after the White House announced a commitment by the kingdom to invest $600 billion in a series of deals with the U.S.
Trump also announced at an investment forum in Riyadh that he will order the removal of all U.S. sanctions against Syria, “in order to give them a chance at greatness.”
Trump’s speech at the investment conference followed him signing several bilateral agreements during a state visit with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Among the agreements secured is a nearly $142 billion defense sales deal, providing the kingdom with “state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms,” the White House said.
That commitment is nearly double Saudi Arabia’s 2025 defense budget, which totaled $78 billion. The White House’s announcement does not say when the defense deal is expected to conclude.
Bin Salman, who spoke before Trump at the investment conference, said the aim is to raise the U.S.-Saudi partnership to $1 trillion across the military, security, economic and technological sectors.
Economists point out that making good on that investment pledge will be a challenge for the kingdom, which faces sky-high costs for its own Vision 2030 investment ambitions.
Lower global oil prices and big-ticket public spending projects have brought about widening budget deficits for Riyadh.
The White House also announced commitments from Saudi digital infrastructure business DataVolt to pursue a $20 billion investment in artificial intelligence data centers in the U.S.
The total investment figure also includes a combined $80 billion in commitments from DataVolt, Google, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD and Uber to invest in both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, according to the White House.