WASHINGTON / RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) will pay an official working visit to the White House on November 18, a senior White House official confirmed to Al Arabiya English on Monday.
During the visit, Crown Prince Mohammed will hold talks with US President Donald Trump, marking his second official trip to Washington following his 2018 visit. President Trump, notably, had chosen Saudi Arabia as his first foreign destination during both of his presidential terms a symbolic gesture underscoring the strategic weight of the US–Saudi partnership.
According to diplomatic sources, the meeting is expected to feature extensive discussions on defence cooperation, technology partnerships, and semiconductor development, as both nations seek to expand collaboration in high-tech sectors critical to global innovation and supply chain security.
During President Trump’s May visit to Riyadh, the two countries signed $142 billion in Memoranda of Intent, including substantial Saudi investments in the US defence industrial base. Insiders told The Wall Street Journal that negotiations on a semiconductor export agreement, allowing US companies to supply advanced chips to Saudi Arabia, are now nearing finalisation.
The upcoming summit comes amid rapidly strengthening economic and technological ties between Washington and Riyadh. Last week, Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN and US-based Qualcomm Technologies announced a landmark artificial intelligence (AI) partnership on the side-lines of the ninth Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh.
The collaboration aims to position the Kingdom as a global hub for AI innovation, leveraging Qualcomm’s expertise to deliver edge-to-cloud hybrid AI platforms described as the world’s first fully optimised system of its kind. The partnership, originally conceived during the Saudi–US Investment Forum in May, represents a major milestone in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 transformation strategy.
Officials from both sides said the upcoming White House meeting would reaffirm bilateral commitments to advancing shared strategic, defence, and technological interests, while deepening long-term cooperation in energy, innovation, and security.