Who attended Trump's dinner for the Saudi Crown Prince?

President Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House for a black-tie dinner. The event saw prominent figures from finance, tech, and sports, including Cristiano Ronaldo and Elon Musk. This meeting marks a significant diplomatic moment following the 2018 Khashoggi killing. Business ties between the US and Saudi Arabia are strengthening with substantial investments planned.

The world's richest man. One of the world's most famous soccer players. The president of soccer's governing body. Dozens of executives from the finance, tech and energy sectors.

These are some of the guests who attended President Donald Trump's black-tie dinner for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia at the White House on Tuesday evening.

The red carpet welcome for Crown Prince Mohammed is an extraordinary moment in diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia. It is his first visit to the United States since the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which U.S. intelligence determined the prince ordered. Crown Prince Mohammed has denied involvement.

After Khashoggi's murder, some Western business executives and government officials backed out of Saudi Arabia's global investment conference, including leaders of major American financial institutions. But by the following year, top deal makers were back at the event in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

On Tuesday, Trump and the crown prince cast their partnership as one that would reap benefits for both countries. Already, Trump has agreed to sell F-35 fighter jets to the kingdom, and the prince has promised to invest nearly $1 trillion in the United States.

The White House is planning to release a full guest list, according to an official. Here is a list of some of the guests The New York Times was able to confirm at the dinner:

SOCCER ROYALTY

Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo, 40, is one of the most famous soccer players in the world, and has won multiple accolades throughout a professional career that began in 2002.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Ronaldo, a Portuguese national who has played in leagues in England, Spain and Italy, is currently plying his trade with the club team Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League. The Saudi government has invested billions of dollars over the years to attract world-class players, and Ronaldo is the league's highest-paid player.Gianni Infantino

Infantino is the head of FIFA, international soccer's governing body, and has served in the role for nearly 10 years. He has grown close to Trump as the United States prepares to co-host the World Cup in 2026.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Infantino is also close to Crown Prince Mohammed, and helped award Saudi Arabia the World Cup in 2034. FIFA's president openly campaigned for the Saudi World Cup bid, pushed for Saudi investment in the sport and created rules for World Cup hosts that all but ensured that the Gulf State would get to hold the event.TECH MOGULS

Elon Musk

Musk, the world's richest man, is making his first visit to the White House since he left his role in the administration in dramatic fashion, lashing out at Trump. The two have reached something of a detente in recent months.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Musk has had a frosty relationship with Saudi leaders that has thawed in recent months. For years, the billionaire has blamed the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, for pulling out of his failed effort to take Tesla private, and has criticized the state's position on "journalistic freedom of speech." But Musk has also accepted Saudi investment in X, his social media site, and xAI, his artificial intelligence company. Humain, a state-backed AI company in Saudi Arabia, has hinted it would do deals with xAI. Tim Cook

Cook, the CEO of Apple, was also one of the tech moguls in attendance at Trump's inauguration.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Apple has spent over $2 billion with companies in Saudi Arabia over the past five years, and during a visit to the country in late 2024, Cook pledged to open Apple stores there by 2026. The company has faced some blowback for hosting a Saudi app that allows men to track the movement of their wives and daughters. In 2019, Cook said he would investigate the app, but it is still available today. Michael Dell

Michael Dell is the CEO of Dell, one of the world's largest tech companies.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Dell Technologies has done significant business in Saudi Arabia, including opening a fulfillment center in Damman this year. The facility "marks a significant milestone in our commitment to supporting Saudi Arabia's ambitious vision for the future," a Dell executive said. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding in February with Aramco, the state-owned oil company, to "explore opportunities" in a number of areas, including artificial intelligence. The company has also signed a similar memorandum with the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority.Jensen Huang

Huang is the CEO of the AI chip behemoth Nvidia.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Huang traveled to Saudi Arabia with Trump in May, where he announced a partnership between his company and Humain, a Saudi Arabian AI firm. As part of the deal, Nvidia will sell about 18,000 of its latest chips to help power new data centers. At the time, a larger contract for AI technologies was also being discussed. The deal has raised concern inside and outside the White House about whether China could acquire the advanced technology, and whether the gulf region could one day supplant the United States as AI leaders.

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Linda Su

Su is the CEO of AMD, the major computer chips company.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Alongside Humain, the Saudi state-backed AI company, AMD has committed billions of dollars to fund AI data centers in Saudi Arabia and the United States. The company has said that partnering with Humain has driven "U.S. leadership in the global AI race."BUSINESS EXECUTIVES

David Ellison

Ellison is the CEO of Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, MTV and Hollywood's oldest movie studio.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Ellison is trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery in what would be a major multibillion-dollar media deal. Ellison's father, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, is backing those efforts, but the Saudi sovereign wealth fund could be part of the deal. Mike Wirth

Wirth is the CEO of Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Chevron has extensive business ties with Saudi Arabia, where one of its corporate ancestors, Standard Oil of California, began exploring for crude oil nearly a century ago. Chevron now produces oil and natural gas on the kingdom's behalf in the neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Such partnerships between U.S. oil companies and foreign governments or state-owned energy companies are quite common. Chevron, which said it has "a long history of productive cooperation in the kingdom," also has financial interests in chemicals plants there, and buys Saudi oil.Jane Fraser

Fraser is the chair and CEO of Citi, a large consumer and investment bank that is based in New York but does business in 180 countries.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Last month, Fraser was named the co-chair of the U.S. Saudi Business Council, which encourages business ties between the two countries. Her bank has a long-standing client relationship with the kingdom, for which it has advised on a variety of deals over the years. In the type of move that has been encouraged as part of Crown Prince Mohammed's economic plans, Citi last year obtained a license to establish its regional headquarters in Riyadh. Stephen A. Schwarzman

Schwarzman is the CEO and co-founder of Blackstone, a large New York-based private equity firm.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Blackstone, which manages $1.25 trillion in assets, has been doing business with Saudi Arabia for many years. During Trump's first state visit to the kingdom in 2017, Blackstone announced that the sovereign wealth fund would make an investment of up to $20 billion for a project Blackstone was launching to invest in U.S. infrastructure. Over the years, Schwarzman has traveled frequently to Riyadh to meet with his Saudi investors and to participate in the kingdom's annual investment conference. More recently, a Blackstone-backed company called Air Trunk announced plans to help build data centers in Saudi Arabia.Brendan Bechtel

Bechtel is the CEO of Bechtel Corp., one of the largest construction companies in the United States.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Bechtel Corp.'s business is booming in Saudi Arabia. Brandon Bechtel wrote last week in a Saudi newspaper that his company had worked on 300 projects in Saudi Arabia, from the Riyadh Metro and the Trans-Arabian Pipeline to gold mines and the World Expo 2030 site. "Our partnership has lasted through technological change, global upheaval, and 14 U.S. presidents. And it is still going strong," he wrote. Mary Barra

Barra is the CEO of General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia is the largest car market in the Middle East. GM sells Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac vehicles in a market dominated by Japanese, Korean and, increasingly, Chinese brands. Her presence may also reflect a desire to maintain good relations with Trump. His tariffs on imported cars and parts have cost GM and other carmakers billions of dollars in profits. William Clay Ford Jr.

Ford is the executive chair of Ford Motor.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Ford Motor recently revamped its management team in Saudi Arabia and has reported brisk growth in the Middle East's largest car market. But William Ford is probably most interested in maintaining good relations with Trump, whose tariffs and other policies have had a significant impact on Ford's business.TRUMP FAMILY MEMBERS

Donald Trump Jr.

Donald Trump Jr. is the president's oldest son, and helps lead the family business, the Trump Organization, with Eric Trump, his younger brother.

Ties to Saudi Arabia: Trump Jr. served as a liaison to Gulf States, including Saudi Arabia, for his father's presidential campaign in 2016. After Khashoggi's murder in 2018, he also spread an unsubstantiated claim that Khashoggi had been a terrorist sympathizer. The Trump Organization has a long history of business dealings with Saudi Arabia, ranging from real estate deals in the Middle East to hosting Saudi-backed golf tournaments at Trump properties. Since Donald Trump's return to the White House, his sons have also secured a flurry of new real estate deals, including three new developments in Saudi Arabia. More talks are ongoing.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now!

Source: EconomicTimes
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