Saudi Arabia Says It Will Increase U.S. Trade and Investment by $600 Billion

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia told President Trump on Wednesday that the kingdom intends to increase its investment and trade with the United States by at least $600 billion over the next four years, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

The crown prince, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, told Mr. Trump that his new administration had the ability to create “unprecedented economic prosperity” in the United States, and that the kingdom wanted to participate, a statement from the Saudi Press Agency said.

The White House confirmed the call, President Trump’s first with a foreign leader since returning to office, on Thursday morning.

Mr. Trump has promised to accelerate investment in the United States, particularly to help revive manufacturing. While campaigning last year, he said he would use a mix of tax cuts and tariffs to force companies to invest in the United States.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced Stargate, a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle that is intended to create at least $100 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The initiative could invest as much as $500 billion over four years.

Saudi Arabia was Mr. Trump’s first stop on his first overseas trip as president in 2017, a reflection of the importance he put on his relationship with the crown prince. During that term, the United States pursued major deals with the kingdom, including arms sales.

Since then, Mr. Trump and his family have signed several personal business deals in the Gulf region, especially in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Trump organization announced several projects in Saudi Arabia in December and also unveiled a $533 million Trump Tower in Jeddah with Dar Global, the global arm of Saudi Arabia’s Dar Al Arkan real estate company. Both Dar Al Arkan and its Dar Global subsidiary are private companies, but they have close ties to the Saudi government.

Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, also secured a $2 billion investment from a Saudi government fund for his private equity firm six months after Mr. Trump left the White House in 2021.

“One thing is certain, Trump and M.B.S. are both fluent in the language of business,” said Salman al-Ansari, a geopolitical analyst from Saudi Arabia, using a widespread abbreviation of the crown prince’s name.

Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday that Saudi Arabia was his first foreign stop during his previous term because “they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our product.”

If Saudi Arabia wanted to “buy another 450 or 500,” he said, “I think I’d probably go there,” for his first overseas trip in his second term.

In the spring, before his election, Mr. Trump spoke with the crown prince. It was unclear what they discussed and whether this was the only conversation they had since Mr. Trump left office.

During the campaign, Mr. Trump told Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned broadcaster, that he had “so much respect for Mohammed, who is doing so great.”

Mr. Trump stood by the crown prince in the aftermath of the killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, despite the C.I.A.’s assessment that the crown prince had likely approved the killing and dismemberment of Mr. Khashoggi.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also spoken with the Saudi crown prince, in a phone call during which they discussed the “strength of the U.S.-Saudi partnership in this time of momentous change,” according to a State Department readout. In 2018, while he was a senator, Mr. Rubio said there was “no doubt” the Saudi crown prince was involved in the Khashoggi murder.

Another focus of the Trump administration is persuading Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, an agreement brokered during Mr. Trump’s first term that resulted in several Arab nations establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

In a readout released early Thursday morning by the Saudi press agency, the Saudis said Mr. Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed had also discussed “ways to promote peace, security, and stability in the Middle East,” though the statement did not mention any discussions on a potential expansion of those accords.

In the Oval Office on Monday, Mr. Trump also discussed those agreements. He told reporters: “I don’t think you have to push them. I think it’s going to happen, but maybe not quite yet. But they’ll end up in the accords, the Abraham Accords.” When asked when he expected both sides to sign a new deal, Mr. Trump replied, “Soon.”

Last year, Crown Prince Mohammed stated that the kingdom would not normalize relations with Israel without first securing recognition of Palestinian statehood, a position that marked a shift from earlier statements.