# Saudi Influence > [!note] Scope > This page covers **Saudi Arabia's influence operations directed at the United States** — sovereign-wealth investment, lobbying, sportswashing and elite cultivation. > For the country itself see [[Saudi Arabia]]. Saudi Arabia is the single largest foreign investor in the US tech ecosystem and a pivotal node connecting defense contracts, Silicon Valley capital, and Trump-era political influence. Under Crown Prince [[Mohammed bin Salman]], the Kingdom has systematically built financial dependencies across the American tech elite — creating leverage that blurs the line between investment, influence, and foreign policy. ## The Public Investment Fund (PIF) The Kingdom's $930B+ sovereign wealth fund, chaired by MBS, is the primary vehicle for Saudi influence in US tech: - **$11B+ in US startups** during MBS's initial spending spree (2016-2018), making PIF the largest single investor in Silicon Valley at its peak - **$3.5B in Uber** (2016) — the single largest tech venture investment at the time - **$45B in [[SoftBank]] Vision Fund** — giving Saudi indirect stakes across hundreds of tech companies - **$800M+ in Elon Musk's xAI** (2024), with PIF set to lead additional rounds - **Stakes in Tesla** through PIF holdings - **$28.8B in Electronic Arts** (2025) — majority stake acquisition - Named world's most active sovereign wealth fund in 2025 - Target: $3 trillion AUM by 2030 ## MBS 2018 Silicon Valley Tour In April 2018, MBS conducted a landmark three-week US tour that included a systematic courtship of Silicon Valley: - **[[Peter Thiel]]**: Visited [[Palantir]], [[Founders Fund]], Clarium Capital, and [[Valar Ventures]] - **[[Alex Karp]]**: Met at Palantir headquarters — significant given Palantir's intelligence/surveillance capabilities - **[[Marc Andreessen]]**: Met MBS; later became advisor to NEOM, the $500B megacity project - **[[Jeff Bezos]]**: Met and exchanged phone numbers — later alleged to have been used to hack Bezos's phone - **[[Mark Zuckerberg]]**: Visited Facebook headquarters - **[[Sam Altman]]**: Met as [[Y Combinator]] partner; later became advisor to Saudi megacity project - **[[Vinod Khosla]], [[Tim Cook]]**: Also on the tour schedule - Visited Google, Apple, Facebook campuses ## The Bezos Phone Hack (2018-2019) One of the most dramatic Saudi-tech confrontations: 1. **April 2018**: MBS and [[Jeff Bezos]] exchange phone numbers at a dinner in Los Angeles 2. **May 2018**: MBS's [[WhatsApp]] account sends Bezos a video file containing malicious code (per FTI Consulting forensic analysis, "medium to high confidence") 3. **October 2018**: Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, is murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul 4. **February 2019**: Bezos publishes blog post suggesting Saudi Arabia targeted him because of the Washington Post's Khashoggi coverage 5. **January 2020**: UN experts publicly call for investigation into the hack 6. Saudi Arabia denies involvement; FBI found insufficient evidence to pursue The implication: a foreign head of state personally hacking the phone of the world's richest man and owner of a major American newspaper to suppress coverage of a political assassination. ## The Kushner Pipeline The most direct Saudi-to-White House financial connection: - **Jared Kushner** formed close personal relationship with MBS during Trump's first term, communicating regularly via WhatsApp - **$2 billion** from PIF to Kushner's [[Affinity Partners]] fund (2021), just months after leaving the White House - MBS personally overruled PIF advisors who objected, citing Kushner's "inexperience," "unsatisfactory due diligence," and "public relations risks" - By 2024: zero profits returned to investors, but $157M in management fees collected ($87M from Saudi alone) - Congressional investigation launched into possible quid pro quo - Kushner back in second Trump term with even more Saudi financial entanglement ## Trump-Saudi $600B Deal (May 2025) Trump's first overseas trip of his second term was to Saudi Arabia, producing a claimed $600B investment commitment: **Tech CEOs present in Riyadh:** - [[Elon Musk]] (Tesla, [[SpaceX]], xAI) - Sam Altman ([[OpenAI]]) - [[Larry Fink]] (BlackRock) - [[Jensen Huang]] (Nvidia — 18,000 AI chips to Saudi Humain) - Lisa Su (AMD — $10B AI infrastructure deal) - Andy Jassy (AWS — $5B "AI Zone" in Saudi Arabia) **Key deal components:** - $142B defense package - $80B in "cutting-edge transformative technologies" from Google, DataVolt, [[Oracle Corporation]], Salesforce, AMD, Uber - $20B from Saudi DataVolt in US AI data centers - Nvidia partnership with Humain (Saudi AI startup) for AI infrastructure **Scrutiny:** White House itemized list totaled ~$283B — less than half the claimed $600B. Many deals were memoranda of understanding, not binding commitments. ~30% involved investments "in both countries." ## Defense Sales Saudi Arabia is the largest US arms customer: - $142B defense package in May 2025 deal alone - Historically the top purchaser of US weapons systems (F-15s, THAAD, Patriot batteries) - Arms sales have been a persistent point of leverage: MBS uses them to maintain US political support despite human rights record - The Yemen war (2015-present) was prosecuted largely with American weapons, creating bipartisan controversy ## Khashoggi and Press Freedom The October 2018 murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul is the defining human rights event of MBS's reign: - CIA concluded MBS personally ordered the killing - Trump refused to impose meaningful consequences, citing arms deals - The Washington Post (owned by [[Jeff Bezos]]) led coverage - Temporarily made Saudi money "radioactive" in Silicon Valley — but the freeze was short-lived - By 2023, Saudi money had fully returned to Silicon Valley ## The Influence Map Saudi Arabia's US influence operates through multiple channels: | Channel | Key Relationships | |---------|------------------| | **Direct investment** | PIF → xAI, Tesla, Uber, SoftBank, EA | | **Personal relationships** | MBS ↔ Kushner, Thiel, Andreessen, Altman | | **Defense sales** | $142B+ packages, arms industry lobbying | | **Lobbying** | Dozens of registered foreign agents, PR firms | | **Media** | WaPo hack, Khashoggi suppression, sportswashing | | **Advisory roles** | Andreessen, Altman as NEOM advisors | | **Post-government payoffs** | Kushner's $2B, other former officials | ## Significance Saudi Arabia represents the most financially aggressive foreign influence operation in the American tech-political ecosystem. Under MBS, the Kingdom has moved from a traditional oil-state lobbying model to a direct-investment model that creates personal financial dependencies with the most powerful people in American technology and politics. The combination of sovereign wealth ($930B+), defense purchases ($100B+), personal relationships (Kushner, Thiel, Musk), and information operations (Bezos hack) makes Saudi Arabia uniquely positioned to influence both US foreign policy and the direction of American technology.