ISLAMABAD, SEP 4: The US Chamber of Commerce led its first-ever AI business delegation to Saudi Arabia this week, bringing more than 25 companies and over 50 delegates to Riyadh ahead of LEAP 2026, a sign, the Chamber’s Vice President for Middle East Affairs Steve Lutes told Al Arabiya English, that American investor interest in the Kingdom’s tech sector has held up despite this year’s regional conflict.
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It was Lutes’s first trip back to Saudi Arabia since February, before the regional conflict broke out, and he said many American executives had stayed away in the interim. The delegation, which visited on the eve of the conference, included large multinationals and startups, as well as firms with decades of experience in the Kingdom and others visiting for the first time.
On the sidelines of LEAP, Lutes told Al Arabiya English’s Tom Burges Watson that the scale of the group reflected how far US interest has spread beyond Saudi Arabia’s traditional energy and security ties, with the Chamber tracking growing American activity in AI, healthcare, genomics and tourism, even as energy remains what he called the “center” of the relationship. He linked the shift to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program.
His advice to prospective investors was blunt: Come and see.
“You can learn a lot more about the opportunities over a cup of coffee” than by video call, he said, adding that companies need to “kick the tires” in person to understand what the Kingdom is trying to build.
Lutes also said Saudi investment into the US has multiplied over the past year, as the Trump administration pushes to attract foreign capital into the American economy.
Looking ahead, he pointed to the Future Investment Initiative conference in the coming weeks, telling attendees, “you better get your plane tickets, you better get your rooms now,” and to Expo 2030 and the 2034 World Cup as reasons US business interest in the Kingdom is likely to keep growing.
