The prince is not a beggar: Saudi Arabia has promised to invest $1 trillion in the US economy

The visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud to the United States was formally a working visit, but its protocol level turned out to be comparable to the state one — members of the US Congress, officials and representatives of large businesses took part in the expanded program. The parties agreed on serious progress in trade, economic and military cooperation. Saudi Arabia's planned investments in the United States have been announced to increase from $600 billion to $1 trillion. In addition, the SA will become the first Arab country to acquire advanced American F-35 fighter jets. However, the feasibility of some points of the agreement is still questionable.

Trump defended bin Salman from attacks by journalists

Bin Salman's November visit to Washington was the Crown Prince's first official trip to the United States since 2018. The reason for such a long absence is the discord surrounding the figure of opposition Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in 2018 on the territory of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. American politicians (especially Democrats) tended to consider the murder political and blame bin Salman for its organization. Claiming, among other things, that the Crown Prince was aware of the details of the plot.

Of course, Bin Salman has met with American officials on several occasions since the incident, including high—level talks in Riyadh, but he has never visited the White House. And he made an exception only in November 2025, after several persistent invitations from Donald Trump.

Of course, it was not possible to completely avoid mentioning the "Khashoggi incident" during the visit: at the press conference in the Oval Office, the question of the investigation was among the first. However, Trump decided not to pursue the subject: "Anything happens, whether you like it or not. We can stop there," he said, which actually stood up for the Arabian guest. Thus, the American leadership has officially indicated that it does not intend to return to discussing the Khashoggi incident in the future, much less accuse official Riyadh of organizing his murder.

CA becomes the largest donor to the U.S. economy

Despite periodic attempts by journalists to tease bin Salman, the meeting at the White House was held in a favorable atmosphere. The Saudis expressed their willingness to deepen ties with the United States and "take relations to a new level." This includes working together to develop peaceful ties with all countries in the Middle East, including Israel. "Saudi Arabia wants to be a part of the Abraham Accords, but at the same time wants to be sure that there is a clear track for the implementation of the two—state solution," the Saudi Crown Prince said.

In addition, the parties announced an increase in Saudi Arabia's planned investments in the United States: from $600 billion (as outlined during Trump's "golden tour" of the Gulf countries in May 2025) to $1 trillion. Thus, Riyadh has "equalized" its contribution to the American economy with Qatar, and in some areas (for example, the AI sector) has become an absolute leader.

In an interview with Izvestia, RIAC Program Manager Ivan Bocharov stressed that behind such unexpected generosity of the Saudi leadership there is a desire to solve strategic tasks related to the modernization of its own economy. They want to enlist the support of the United States in promising areas.

— The potential for developing cooperation in the technological, financial, investment spheres, as well as a number of other areas, is far from exhausted. It is also important that Saudi Arabia counts on the assistance of the United States in developing the peaceful atom program, at least at the level of political support. And although the United States links this support with the need to normalize Saudi-Israeli relations, there remains room for dialogue," the expert noted.

The United States will transfer F-35 fighter jets to Riyadh

Much more attention turned out to be focused on the details of the new defense agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia, under which Riyadh was promised supplies of new weapons, ammunition and military equipment. This includes Abrams tanks and "a certain number" of fifth-generation F-35 multi-role fighters.

The exact number of cars sold to Riyadh and the deadline for their transfer have not yet been disclosed, but the deal itself is presented by Trump as a fait accompli. "They [Saudi Arabia] will purchase F-35s and purchase them from Lockheed Martin," the American leader said shortly at a meeting with reporters.

Thus, Saudi Arabia will become the first Arab country to acquire advanced American fighter jets without being a member of NATO.

This caused a natural wave of indignation among American military officials. The key argument of skeptics against the transfer of advanced aircraft to the Saudis is the fear of data leaks to China. Allegedly, Saudi Arabia, which has gained access to stealth technologies with the purchase of aircraft, will sell them to Beijing in exchange for trade preferences and assistance with the development of the nuclear sector.

However, Vladimir Nezhdanov, an expert at the Institute of Current International Problems of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers the information campaign about possible leaks to China to be an escalation of anti-Chinese hysteria.

"The argument that Beijing can get military technology through security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is quite controversial, at least because such cooperation is based on a contractual framework that minimizes the risk of leaks," he added.

At the same time, Nejdanov believes that the public rhetoric in the United States towards China is changing its character and moving from the US-Chinese trade contradictions to a broader channel. Washington will somehow involve third countries, which are considered important trading partners of China, in the confrontation with Beijing. The task of the United States is to minimize the rapprochement of the Chinese side with states that play a serious role in the foreign policy of the United States. Saudi Arabia is definitely on this list.

Israel fears excessive strengthening of the SA

The Israelis were expected to be among the opponents of the transfer of the F-35 to Riyadh. Some representatives of the Jewish state believe that Washington's sale of aircraft that could potentially be converted to carry a nuclear warhead is undermining the regional balance of power. Among other things, it undermines Israel's "power monopoly" in the Middle East and deprives it of the opportunity to restrain the ambitions of other powers, including Iran. However, the Israeli side makes the traditional reservation for such cases: all doubts will be removed if Riyadh joins the "Abraham Agreements" and normalizes relations with Israel.

At the same time, the precedent of selling advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia may hurt Turkey, which has been showing interest in buying the F-35 for years and has previously made significant concessions to Washington for this. This could provoke an even greater cooling of US-Turkish relations and, as a result, a weakening of NATO's flanks.

The selectivity of the United States in choosing the buyer of F-35 fighter jets is directly related to the government's strategic long-term plans to build a profitable line of contacts with the states of the Middle East, says political analyst Dastan Tokoldoshev.

— In resolving the issues relevant to Washington (including the conflict between Israel and Hamas), Saudi Arabia is a much more accommodating and reliable, influential partner, whose leader condemned Israel's actions, but, unlike the same Turkish president, did not voice harsh and harsh rhetoric against the Israeli prime minister. From Washington's point of view, this fact creates more windows of opportunity for strengthening mutual contacts with Riyadh than with Ankara, despite its membership in the North Atlantic Alliance," Tokoldoshev said.

However, deliveries of the F-35 to Saudi Arabia have not yet been finalized — the mechanism for monitoring and preventing leaks is still to be worked out, as well as the number of vehicles sold and the timing of their deliveries. And both sides are determined to resolve this issue without haste. In particular, because the media effect of the very fact of the transfer has already been received and used to its advantage by both Riyadh and Washington.