U.S. President Donald Trump praised Saudi Arabia and its leadership following the White House's announcement of the kingdom’s commitment to invest US$600 billion through a series of deals with the United States. Speaking at an investment forum in Riyadh, Trump also declared that he would direct the lifting of all U.S. sanctions on Syria, stating that the country should be given a chance to become a great nation. His speech at the investment conference came after signing several bilateral agreements during his state visit with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Among the key agreements was a defense sales deal worth nearly US$142 billion.

As reported by the White House and cited by CNBC International on Wednesday (May 14, 2025), the defense agreement involves providing the kingdom with advanced military equipment and services from more than a dozen U.S. defense companies. The size of this commitment is almost double Saudi Arabia’s total defense budget for 2025, which stands at US$78 billion. However, the White House did not specify when the defense agreements are expected to be finalized or implemented.

During the same forum, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, speaking in front of Trump, said that the goal of this cooperation is to boost the U.S.-Saudi partnership to reach a total of US$1 trillion, spanning the military, security, economic, and technology sectors. Economists have pointed out, however, that fulfilling such an ambitious investment pledge will be challenging for the kingdom, which is currently grappling with the high costs associated with its Vision 2030 investment goals. Declining global oil prices and large-scale public spending projects have contributed to growing budget deficits in Riyadh.

In addition, the White House also announced a separate investment commitment of US$20 billion from Saudi digital infrastructure firm DataVolt, aimed at building artificial intelligence data centers in the United States. The overall investment figure also includes a combined commitment of US$80 billion from DataVolt, Google, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber, which plan to invest in both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, according to the White House.