Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman committed his country to increasing his planned investment into the U.S. economy to nearly $1 trillion over the next year on Tuesday.
MBS made the announcement while meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, saying the investments will take place across the U.S. economy. Trump initially stated that the investment would amount to ‘at least’ $600 billion, but the Saudi leader confirmed the higher amount during his remarks.
‘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. But it’s 600. We can count on 600 billion. But, that number could go up a little bit higher,’ Trump said Tuesday.
‘That means investments in plants, in companies, money on Wall Street. And what it really means for everybody, what really counts is jobs. A lot of jobs. We have a lot of jobs,’ Trump added.
Bin Salman vowed to meet the $1 trillion number just minutes later during comments to the press.
Today and tomorrow, we are going to announce that we are going to increase that, that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion of investment, real investment and real opportunity in many areas,’ he said.
‘You know, that’s great. I appreciate that. That’s great. We’re doing numbers that nobody’s ever done. And in all fairness, if you didn’t see potential in the U.S, you wouldn’t be doing it,’ Trump replied.
‘Definitely,’ bin Salman said.
‘You don’t want to lose money,’ Trump joked.
Trump rolled out the red carpet for the Crown Prince on Tuesday, greeting the Middle Eastern leader outside the White House flanked by dozens of U.S. servicemembers. It represents a return to the fold for Saudi Arabia after the country was largely shunned under former President Joe Biden’s administration.