On 19th November Saudi and US authorities boasted of billions of dollars in new investments and expanding financial relationships between the two nations as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was visiting Washington.

The CEOs of Chevron, Qualcomm, Cisco, General Dynamics, and Pfizer are also present in the US-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center in Washington, as per the program, but also the CEOs of IBM, Google, Alphabet, Salesforce, Andreessen Horowitz, Boeing, Halliburton, Adobe, Aramco, State Street, and Parsons Corp.

On Wednesday, Trump mentioned that dozens of companies were signing up to agreements and sales worth $270 billion. Bin Salman also boasted of the investment deals being signed by both officials.

“The deals that were finalized yesterday belong to the entrance of the US firms leading the world in terms of innovation, safety, and deployment,” said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Seated beside Trump in the White House, bin Salman on Tuesday assured of expanding his country’s investment in the US to 1 trillion dollars compared to the 600 billion commitment when Trump visited Saudi Arabia in May. But he did not give any details or a schedule.

Trump claimed that he challenged him to be higher. “Could you make it $1.5 trillion?” he asked.

On Wednesday, one day after President Donald Trump reintroduced him to official Washington with a glowing recommendation of the White House, Bin Salman touched shoulders with some of the most influential businesspeople in Corporate America.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, and Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang, discussed the future of AI. Musk estimated that in 10 or 20 years, work will be optional, and Huang estimated that AI would transform the future of work.

It is the initial visit of bin Salman to the US since the 2018 assassination of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul that led to international outrage. The US intelligence came to the conclusion that bin Salman consented to the capture or murder of Khashoggi, one of the most outspoken critics.

The heir to the throne did not admit to commissioning the operation but took ownership of the fact that it was his prerogative to be the de facto ruler of the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia could not easily marshal a billion and a trillion to invest in the US, considering its high expenditure on already ambitious lines of massive projects in its home country, such as futuristic megacities which have exceeded their budget and have been delayed, and World Cup stadiums.

Trump will also be present at the investment forum event.

Even the president can use more business connections with Saudi Arabia. He and some of his allies have been developing business transactions with Saudi associates in real estate and other investments.

However, Trump wanted to disassociate himself with the possibility of a conflict of interest on Tuesday. In response, he said to reporters that he was not involved in the family business and that they had done very little with Saudi Arabia as such.