Saudis to Host Investment Summit in D.C. During Bin Salman White House Visit, Sources Say
By Jennifer Jacobs, Ed O’Keefe
Saudi Arabia is planning to host a U.S.-Saudi investment summit Nov. 19 in Washington during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit with President Trump, multiple sources tell CBS News.
The crown prince is set to visit the White House on Nov. 18, part of a long-planned trip to follow up on investment announcements made last May when Mr. Trump visited Saudi Arabia, the sources said.
The White House visit is expected to include an Oval Office meeting and lunch, similar to the meetings the president has held with other world leaders in recent weeks. But the White House is also preparing for a black-tie dinner on the evening of Nov. 18 to fete bin Salman.
An invitation obtained by CBS News says the Nov. 19 event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will be co-hosted by the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia and the U.S.-Saudi Business Council. The forum will “explore new investment horizons across critical sectors, including energy, technology, financial services, infrastructure, and healthcare” and will be a platform for “exclusive business matchmaking,” the invitation says.
The event is seen as a follow-up to the $600 billion in Saudi investment bin Salman first announced in February, including what the White House said was the largest defense salein history. In May, Mr. Trump brought a number of high-profile business leaders with him to Saudi Arabia, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Palantir’s Alex Karp, Citigroup’s Jane Fraser, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Franklin Templeton Investments’ Jenny Johnson, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, BDT & MSD Partners’ Dina Powell McCormick and Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman.
It was not immediately clear who’s been invited to the Nov. 19 summit in Washington, or who plans to attend.
One source said some of the deals first announced in May could be finalized during bin Salman’s Washington visit, since they’ve now cleared the required review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which must vet larger global transactions.
The president and his family maintain personal business ties to Saudi Arabia. Last year, the Trump Organization announced plans for the development of a Trump Tower in Jeddah, a major Saudi city along the Red Sea. Eric Trump, the president’s son and the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told Reuters that the Trump Organization also has plans for a Trump-branded property in Riyadh. And the president’s son-in-law and former top White House adviser, Jared Kushner, started a private equity firm, Affinity Partners, which received a reported $2 billion investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund controlled by bin Salman.
