AILSA CHANG, HOST:
When President Trump went to Saudi Arabia this week, he brought along a number of top tech CEOs, among them, the heads of OpenAI, NVIDIA and Amazon. These executives announced a flurry of artificial intelligence investments - signs of renewed relationships between Saudi Arabia and Silicon Valley after years of tension. NPR's Bobby Allyn joins us now to explain what has changed. Hi, Bobby.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so why did so many tech executives decide to personally join Trump in Saudi Arabia, you think?
ALLYN: Yeah, you know, it's a symbolic way of saying the U.S. tech industry is moving beyond the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Back in 2018, after the country's agents killed Khashoggi, there was a backlash, right? Many tech companies refused to attend this big summit there, known as Davos in the Desert. There was new scrutiny of tech ventures funded with Saudi money. And here we are seven years later, Ailsa, and the Silicon Valley elite are no longer debating Saudi's human rights record. Instead, they are gladly striking new deals with the country. And they're doing so just as tech CEOs embrace President Trump, which is a far cry from his first term when Trump and the tech world were very much at odds.
CHANG: Exactly. So what does the tech industry get from Saudi Arabia, specifically?
ALLYN: Well, the tech industry, you know, for them, the obvious thing is money. The Saudis have invested billions of dollars to support AI development in the U.S., and this week, they're promising even more. Now, on top of this, Princeton professor Bernard Haykel told me there are three other things that may be less obvious that Saudi Arabia can offer.
BERNARD HAYKEL: Land for data centers, two, free energy and three, a very low to nonexistent regulatory environment.
ALLYN: Right, Haykel says a lot of cheap land where companies can build data centers and power energy-intensive AI infrastructures is appealing to tech companies competing fiercely in the AI race, as is, Ailsa, a society where there are just fewer guardrails and constraints for AI development. And another factor, the Saudi alliance is being pitched by industry leaders as a way to keep China's tech at bay.
CHANG: Of course. Well, what about Saudi Arabia? Like, why did they want these particular deals so much?
ALLYN: Yeah, Haykel, who actually communicates regularly with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told me, you know, recent AI investments and this cozying up to Silicon Valley has been in the works for some time.
HAYKEL: The Saudis are involved in a very serious effort to diversify their economy away from oil, which they're heavily dependent on, and petrochemicals. And they want to build new sectors that are not related to fossil fuels. Technology is one of them.
ALLYN: For example, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund says it has invested more than $100 billion in the U.S. since 2017, and now Trump is calling on the country to pour another trillion dollars in - unclear how serious that is. One thing Haykel says is certain is that Saudi officials are pleased that the U.S. business community's icy relationship with the country is thawing 'cause he says its economic future depends on it.
CHANG: OK, but are there concerns about this growing relationship between big tech and Saudi Arabia?
ALLYN: Yeah, human rights organizations question whether it's really a smart idea to do business with an authoritarian regime where, say, being LGBT is illegal and can lead to prison time. Dissent is repressed. The country has little tolerance for free speech. Then there are the national security fears - right? - that giving Saudi Arabia access to the U.S.'s leading AI technology could one day create competition and security problems.
CHANG: That is NPR's Bobby Allyn. Thank you, Bobby.
ALLYN: Thanks, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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