Former U.S. President Donald Trump is set to take the stage in Miami Beach on Wednesday at an exclusive investment summit hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
The event, known as the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Priority Summit, serves as a key platform for high-profile investors and business leaders seeking access to PIF’s $925 billion in assets.
Trump’s presence at the gathering revealed his efforts at deepening economic alignment with Saudi Arabia as well as the kingdom’s ongoing efforts to expand its influence in the U.S. economy.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has pledged to boost trade and investment into the United States by $600 billion over the next four years. While the figure represents a substantial economic commitment, Trump has made it clear that he expects more.
The promise, however, has been enough to attract a high-powered roster of U.S. executives and investors to Miami, drawn by the potential for increased Saudi-backed investments.
“Saudi Arabia and its leadership will appreciate the gesture,” said Karen Young, a senior research scholar at Columbia University. “It also underscores how President Trump measures the relationship: in transactional but also potentially mutually beneficial terms.”
The summit has drawn some of the biggest names in finance and technology, including billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.
Collectively, the group represents more than $100 billion in net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Chief executives from Uber and Oracle Corp. are also among the attendees, alongside PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
For Saudi Arabia, securing Trump as the keynote speaker signals its growing economic clout in the U.S. and its ability to leverage financial relationships for strategic influence.
Trump, who has maintained close ties with the kingdom, has business interests in Saudi Arabia, including a planned residential tower in Jeddah under the Trump Organization brand.
His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has also benefited from Saudi investments, with PIF among the key backers of his private equity firm, Affinity Partners.
Beyond trade and investment, Trump is reportedly looking to the Saudis to facilitate a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of efforts to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
The move reflects Saudi Arabia’s growing role as a mediator in global affairs and Trump’s continued engagement in international diplomacy despite no longer holding office.
Despite the economic and political alignment, the U.S.-Saudi relationship has not been without friction. The kingdom recently issued a strongly worded condemnation of Trump’s proposal to relocate residents of war-torn Gaza to Jordan and Egypt while transforming the region into a luxury destination.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to discuss the issue in an interview with Kushner during the summit.
The high-profile nature of the Miami gathering highlights Saudi Arabia’s expanding influence in global markets and its ability to attract top U.S. business leaders despite past controversies.
Previous editions of the FII summit were overshadowed by the fallout from the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an event that strained U.S.-Saudi relations.
Now, as Trump shares the stage with some of the most powerful figures in finance and technology, the focus shifts to whether Saudi Arabia’s $600 billion pledge will materialize and how it will shape the economic and political landscape between the two nations in the years ahead.
