M A Hossain<\/p>\n
When President Donald Trump descended the staircase of Air Force One in Riyadh in May 2025, the choreography of the moment was not merely symbolic\u2014it was strategic. In the desert capital, far from the Washington beltway\u2019s distractions, Trump underscored a geopolitical realignment not built on the usual scaffolding of oil, arms, and alliances, but on silicon, code, and data. This wasn\u2019t simply about reaffirming ties with Saudi Arabia. It was about cementing a partnership that seeks to define, and dominate, the architecture of the 21st-century digital order.
\nIn many ways, this moment is long overdue. The US-Saudi relationship, formalised in 1945 aboard the USS Quincy between President Franklin Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz, has always been defined by transactional necessity\u2014oil for security. But the nature of strategic value has changed. Today, power is measured less by barrels per day and more by teraflops per second. The levers of global influence are now data centres, AI models, chip foundries, and digital standards.
\nThis is where Riyadh\u2019s ambitions\u2014and Washington\u2019s calculations\u2014intersect with unique clarity.
\nUnder Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), Saudi Arabia has embarked on an audacious transformation under its Vision 2030 blueprint. What once was a conservative petrostate is now positioning itself as a tech-forward innovation hub. From the $500 billion Neom smart city to the recently announced $5 billion partnership with Amazon Web Services to build an \u201cAI Zone,\u201d Saudi Arabia is moving fast, with scale, and with intent.
\nAt LEAP 2025, Saudi Arabia announced more than $15 billion in tech investment commitments, signalling its desire to become the Arab world\u2019s digital epicentre. The creation of the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and the state-backed AI company Humain\u2014backed with hundreds of thousands of Nvidia chips\u2014reveal a kingdom that understands its comparative advantage: capital and ambition, married to geopolitical leverage.
\nThe United States, for its part, brings to the table what Saudi Arabia lacks: world-class innovation ecosystems, deep technical talent, and the ability to define global standards. Silicon Valley still leads in foundational AI research. American firms still dominate in semiconductor design. The Trump administration\u2019s appointment of David Sacks as AI and crypto czar, and Vice President JD Vance\u2019s vocal leadership at the Paris AI Action Summit, reflect a pivot away from tech-sceptic regulation towards assertive digital leadership.
\nTogether, this partnership has the potential to shape a new global order\u2014one where liberal democratic norms, not techno-authoritarianism, define how AI is deployed, regulated, and monetised.
\nYet there\u2019s more than innovation at play here. There\u2019s also geopolitics. While the Biden administration hedged and wavered on export rules and dual-use technology transfers, Trump\u2019s White House has embraced the \u201cAI D\u00e9tente\u201d doctrine. By rescinding the \u201cAI Diffusion Rule,\u201d which restricted chip exports to the Gulf, the Trump administration signalled its willingness to treat Middle Eastern partners not as dependencies, but as co-architects in a new technological framework.
\nThe calculus is clear: if the US expects Saudi Arabia and the UAE to cut ties with Chinese firms like Huawei and withdraw from Beijing\u2019s digital Belt and Road, it must offer not just carrots, but capital access and co-development pathways. This week\u2019s announcement of potential joint ventures with G42\u2014the Emirati AI firm that severed its Chinese connections\u2014demonstrates a shift in US strategy: outcompeting China not by containment, but by pre-eminence.
\nConsider the stakes. In 2024, Saudi Arabia\u2013China bilateral trade topped $107 billion. The two countries signed over 70 agreements across agriculture, biotech, green tech, and smart infrastructure. Riyadh is not abandoning Beijing; it\u2019s hedging. The US must offer a more compelling alternative\u2014one built on trust, transparency, and technological superiority.
\nEnter the Digital Cooperation Organisation (DCO), an underappreciated pillar in this emerging architecture. Headquartered in Riyadh and led by a Saudi woman, the DCO is the world\u2019s only intergovernmental body dedicated solely to digital development. With 16 member states across four continents and a combined GDP of $3.5 trillion, the DCO seeks to democratise digital access through education, infrastructure, and regulatory harmonisation.
\nThe organisation\u2019s emphasis on inclusion\u2014especially for women, youth, and fragile states\u2014gives it credibility in the Global South. Its initiatives in digital identity systems for refugees, fintech platforms for post-conflict recovery, and AI literacy training represent a rare fusion of hard power with soft values.
\nBut if this vision is to scale, it must go beyond summits and slogans. It requires bilateral AI investment funds focused on applied innovation\u2014in areas such as healthcare diagnostics, supply chain optimisation, energy efficiency, and cybersecurity. It demands digital trade agreements that prioritise interoperability, data protection, and cyber resilience. And it calls for digital infrastructure development across Asia and Africa, offering a counterweight to China\u2019s surveillance-laden technologies.
\nHerein lies the opportunity\u2014and the challenge. China\u2019s model of digital hegemony, exported via Huawei and ZTE, hinges on control: of data, of narrative, of infrastructure. It\u2019s a vision where facial recognition meets state repression. The US\u2013Saudi model must offer something better: AI that empowers, not monitors; platforms that connect, not isolate; and innovation governed by ethics, not expedience.
\nYet there are risks. Trump\u2019s transactionalism, while effective in securing megadeals like the $142 billion weapons package or the hundreds of billions in Gulf investments, could devolve into short-termism. The rush for AI leadership should not overlook the need for regulatory safeguards, talent development, and open-source standards. Likewise, Saudi Arabia\u2019s domestic human rights record and its aggressive geopolitical posture\u2014most notably in Yemen\u2014remain issues of concern. A digital alliance cannot ignore analogue realities.
\nNevertheless, we should not underestimate the potential of what is unfolding.
\nThis is not merely about chips and code\u2014it is about shaping the DNA of tomorrow\u2019s world. Just as Bretton Woods and the Marshall Plan built the post-WWII liberal order, Riyadh and Washington now have the chance to define the post-industrial one. The world\u2019s next ideological competition may not be between communism and capitalism, but between techno-authoritarianism and techno-pluralism.
\nIn Trump\u2019s Riyadh speech, he envisioned a Middle East \u201cdefined by commerce, not chaos.\u201d But perhaps it goes further. A region once known for exporting fossil fuels and fanatics could, with the right investment and incentives, become a hub for exporting technology, tolerance, and talent.
\nThat won\u2019t happen automatically. It requires consistency, coalition-building, and courage. But the pieces are falling into place: from Neom\u2019s innovation corridors to Silicon Valley\u2019s algorithmic breakthroughs, from DCO\u2019s policy playbooks to new AI corridors linking Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Austin.
\nThe future won\u2019t wait. As the race for digital supremacy accelerates, nations must choose: to lead or to lag, to co-operate or to capitulate.
\nWith its capital, strategic geography, and bold leadership, Saudi Arabia is signalling its desire to lead. With its innovation base, security commitments, and global alliances, America remains the indispensable partner.
\nTogether, they can forge not just a new alliance\u2014but a new global order. One where power is measured not by the oil beneath our feet, but by the intelligence\u2014human and artificial\u2014that shapes the world above it.<\/p>\n
The writer is a political and defense analyst based in Bangladesh. He can be reached at writetomahossain@gmail.com<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
M A Hossain When President Donald Trump descended the staircase of Air Force One in Riyadh in May 2025, the choreography of the moment was not merely symbolic\u2014it was strategic. In the desert capital, far from the Washington beltway\u2019s distractions, Trump underscored a geopolitical realignment not built on the usual scaffolding of oil, arms, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[13085],"class_list":{"0":"post-479381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-m-a-hossain"},"yoast_head":"\n