Some of the United States’ most powerful business leaders will descend on Riyadh for the Saudi-US Investment Forum – dubbed “MAGA in the Desert” – to boost investment in America as President Donald Trump prepares for a highly anticipated visit next week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates to deepen ties with key regional players, according to the New York Post.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink are expected to attend the Saudi-US Investment Forum set to be held on May 13th, sources told the Post. Other corporate leaders slated to attend are OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser.
Top Trump administration officials are also said to be attending the forum, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks.
“This is going to be MAGA in the desert. It is ultimately about creating jobs in the US,” a source said.
The Post reports:
The corporate shindig will take place a day before Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, also known as “MBS,” chairs a summit featuring the US and the leaders of the so-called Gulf Cooperation Council: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar.
The plan for the conference is to ink agreements on everything from defense, AI, tech, and healthcare cooperation worth at least $600 billion—a goal set by MBS on Jan. 23 in Trump’s first call with a foreign leader after winning a second term in the White House.
The Department of Defense recently announced the State Department’s approval of a potential $3.5 billion sale of AIM-120C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia. The missiles will be assembled by RTX Corporation in Tucson, Arizona.
“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy goals and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that contributes to political stability and economic progress in the Gulf Region,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the military balance in the region.”
On Tuesday, the Saudi Arabian cabinet announced that the Kingdom will discuss a potential cooperation agreement with the United States in mining and mineral resources, according to a Tuesday statement from the state news agency obtained by Reuters.
Trump, while meeting with newly-elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office, teased an announcement potentially connected to the Middle East. “It’ll be one of the most important announcements that has been made in many years about a certain subject,” the president said.
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