Saudi Crown Prince Salman Ups Investments into US to $1T
On 18 November 2025, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that investment into USA would rise to USD one trillion during meeting with US President Donald Trump in Oval Office. The ODI will target Artificial Intelligence (#AI) and #CriticalMinerals projects, amongst other sectors.
Prince Salman emphasized that the investment fits into the Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 national development plan (#NDP), that aims to diversify the economy beyond oil. Previously in May 2025, Saudi Arabia had committed to invest USD 600 billion into the US. With this new pledge, President Trump was glad to announce that he has managed to secure some USD 24 trillion of FDI into the USA.
The presence of Elon Musk at the welcome banquet in honor of the Saudi delegation at the White House did not go unnoticed. Observers note that it signals that Musk and Trump might have buried the hatchet and moved forward.
A US – Saudi Investment Forum also took place where AI featured prominently. Actually, a discussion panel including Elon Musk of X and Jensen Huang of Nvidia gave their perspectives on things to come in terms of technology. Musk also announced plans to build a 500 MW AI data center in Saudi Arabia.
On the Critical Minerals front, Saudi Arabia possesses the world’s 4th most valued deposits of #RareEarths. Saudi Arabia has an estimated 552,000 tonnes of heavy rare earths in Jabal Sayid, including dysprosium and terbium, and another 355,000 tonnes of light rare earths such as neodymium and preaseodymium.
Saudi Arabia’s Maaden, the US Department of War, and MP Materials have formed a JV to build a rare earth refinery in the Kingdom, Maaden will hold 51%, while the US Department of War will hold 49%. MP Materials will provide the technical assistance.