Trump signs $142B arms deal with Saudi Arabia

President Donald Trump brokered a $142 billion defense deal Tuesday while visiting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the capital city of Riyadh. The deal is the largest defense sale agreement in history, according to the White House. Over a dozen American defense contractors will equip Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services, the White House said. The equipment and services will cover air and space capabilities, missile defense, maritime and border security, and communication system updates. The multibillion-dollar deal also included extensive training and support to build up the Saudi armed forces with enhanced military academies and military medical services.

Trump kicked off his three-day Middle Eastern tour with Salman on Tuesday. The pair shared Arabian coffee before meeting with several tech leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Trump and Salman maintained a great friendship through the years, the president said Tuesday. Salman is wise beyond his years and very friendly, Trump added. America will walk away with about 2 million jobs from the visit, the president said. The arms deal is only one part of a larger $600 billion investment that Salman earlier vowed to invest over the next four years.

What else is included in the $600 billion deal?

• Saudi Arabia’s DataVolt planned to invest $20 billion in artificial intelligence data centers and energy infrastructure in the United States under the deal.

• Several American companies like Hill International, Parsons, and AECOM are building key infrastructure projects like King Salman International Airport and King Salman Park, totaling about $2 billion in U.S. services exports, according to the White House.

• Saudi flight service AviLease planned to pay just over $14 billion for gas turbines and energy solutions from GE Vernova, and another $4.8 billion for Boeing 737-8 passenger aircraft.

• Shamekh IV Solutions planned to invest $5.8 billion in the United States, specifically by opening a plant in Michigan for a high-capacity IV fluid facility.

• Tech and business giants Google, DataVolt, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber committed to investing $80 billion in transformative technologies across both countries.

What’s next? Trump will speak at a Saudi investment forum on Wednesday and travel to Qatar later that day, then wrap up the three-day trip in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday. The UAE similarly vowed to pour about $1.4 trillion into the United States over the next decade with investments in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and energy. 

Dig deeper: Read my report on how Disney vowed to build its next major theme park in the UAE.