Joining President Trump and us and Saudi officials for lunch in Riyadh on Tuesday are business leaders of some of America's biggest businesses.
Management from tech companies, banks, consumer groups and other industries may be seeking business from Saudi investors, businesses and government sectors, including representatives from four of the 10 largest companies with market value. The trip is an opportunity to lobby Trump's officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent and Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick, as their businesses are also dealing with tariffs imposed by Trump on their US trading partners.
Saudi Arabia has emerged as one of the world's largest investors in artificial intelligence. This is about to diversify the economy of oil-rich countries and impact one of the hottest sectors in the business world. Notable AI players at lunchtime include Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGpt Parent Openai. Jensen Fan is the leader of advanced chip maker Nvidia. Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Google's parent company Alphabet. Andy Jussy is the chief of Amazon, a leading provider of cloud computing services.
In addition to overseeing Trump's efforts to significantly reduce the size of the federal government, there are Elon Musk, who runs his own AI company called Tesla, SpaceX and Xai.
The vast amount of money Saudi Arabia spends on technology, infrastructure and other priorities has become a popular destination for financial executives seeking advice from the kingdom and its businesses. Top financial leaders for lunch include Stephen Schwartzman of Blackstone, Larry Fink of BlackRock, and Jane Fraser of Citigroup.
According to the list provided by the White House, business executives and other guests are set up here to join lunch.
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Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX
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Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone Group
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Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock
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Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM
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Jane Fraser, Citigroup CEO
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Kelly Autoberg, Boeing CEO
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Ruth Polatt, president of Alphabet and Google
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Andy Jassie, Amazon CEO
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Sam Altman, CEO of Openai
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Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA
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Alex Carp, CEO of Palantia
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Jeff Miller, CEO of Halliburton
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Travis Kalanick, former CEO of Uber and founder of Cloud Kitchens
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Cathy Warden, CEO of Northrop Grumman
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James Quincy, CEO of Coca-Cola
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Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber
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Miami Mayor Frances Suarez
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Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA
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Patrick Soon-Shiong, executive chairman of Immunity Bio and owner of the Los Angeles Times
LinkedIn executive chairman Reid Hoffman said that although he was on the list of participants offered, it was at the White House, but no representatives were present.
