Saudi Arabia, once shunned, has corporate titans lining up

For years, US executives have travelled to Saudi Arabia in hopes of tapping its deep wealth to fund their businesses and investment firms.

- LAUREN HIRSCH

President Donald Trump speaks at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington on Wednesday.

(NYT)

But those visits were sometimes done stealthily and often with little fanfare, particularly after agents of the kingdom killed Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic, in 2018.

But Wednesday, some of America’s most prominent executives strolled the red-carpeted interior of the Kennedy Center in Washington revelling in all things Saudi.

At an event billed as the US-Saudi Investment Forum, the corporate leaders mingling and applauding speeches by President Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman included Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce; Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia; Dina Powell, vice chair of BDT &MSD Partners and a former Goldman Sachs executive; and Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir.

For many, the reasons they came to the event were simple.

“We can do deals here,’ John Kelly, the chief technology officer of Global AI, said. “We can develop partnerships. Like, real quick, very fast, in the course of two days — dinner, breakfast meetings, side meetings.”