U.S. President Donald Trump landed in Riyadh on Tuesday to begin a high-profile tour of the Middle East, kicking off with a splash as Saudi Arabia and the United States unveiled $600 billion worth of deals across artificial intelligence, defence, and infrastructure sectors. The agreements were finalized during the first leg of a three-country Gulf tour that will also take Trump to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Financial Times, one of the standout deals involves Saudi Arabia’s new state-run AI company, Humain, committing to building large-scale AI infrastructure using hundreds of thousands of Nvidia’s most advanced chips. The first phase alone includes deploying 18,000 of Nvidia’s powerful new “Blackwell” servers — one of the largest such commitments ever made by a state-backed entity.
The investment underpins Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitions to position the kingdom as a global hub for artificial intelligence and economic diversification, part of his Vision 2030 reform plan. Nvidia, for its part, has been increasingly focused on building “sovereign AI” systems around the world, with this deal marking a significant boost to that initiative.
Trump’s tour, marketed as a mission to secure trillions of dollars in investment for the U.S., began with ceremonial fanfare. Streets in Riyadh were lined with U.S. and Saudi flags as Air Force One, escorted by two Royal Saudi Air Force F-15SA jets, touched down at King Khalid International Airport. Trump was greeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other senior Saudi officials.
Controversy surrounded the trip even before it began. Trump’s announcement that Qatar would be gifting him a modified Boeing 747-8 airliner — valued at $400 million — for use as a future Air Force One replacement sparked bipartisan criticism in Washington. Nonetheless, the tour continues with an ambitious agenda.
Trump is accompanied by chief executives from major American companies, many of whom are attending a major investment conference in Riyadh. The guest list reads like a who’s who of the U.S. tech and finance elite, including Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman.
In addition to the economic deals, Trump’s itinerary includes key geopolitical meetings. He is expected to sit down with regional leaders such as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanese President Michel Aoun. Although not officially scheduled, there has been speculation about a possible meeting with Syrian President Ahmed Sharaa — a controversial figure who remains a designated terrorist in the U.S. for his past role in al-Qaeda before leading the rebel coalition that toppled Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
In a notable diplomatic development, Hamas released American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, 21, following negotiations mediated by Qatar — a win Trump was quick to highlight upon arrival.
Trump’s visit will culminate in a formal dinner hosted by the crown prince, followed by a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit attended by leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. These leaders are expected to press Trump for more U.S. security cooperation and a clearer stance on Iran’s nuclear program. They will also likely urge the U.S. to pressure Israel to end its occupation plans in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict.
Meanwhile, Trump has hinted at the possibility of attending peace talks in Turkey later this week between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “There’s a possibility of it, I guess,” Trump said. “If I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done.”
While the headline investment figures are eye-popping — with the UAE pledging $1.4 trillion over ten years and Qatar expected to announce a massive Boeing jet order — analysts warn that many of these pledges include recycled or previously announced deals and may not all materialize.
Still, the sheer scale of agreements announced in Riyadh — particularly in AI and defence — reflects the shifting tides of global technology power, sovereign investment strategy, and U.S.-Gulf relations in the post-oil era.
