Geopolitics Weekly
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📰 MbS visits the White House

📰 MbS visits the White House

and UNSC endorses Gaza plan

Billy Robinson & Ross Crabtree
November 23, 2025

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In Mexico, President Sheinbaum firmly dismissed President Trump’s threat of possible US military strikes on drug cartels. Elsewhere, The Australian government blocks release of Nauru translation for a decade, UN calls RSF-controlled el-Fasher “a crime scene,” and Nigeria jails Biafran separatist leader for life.

This week’s lead story returns to Washington, where Saudi Arabia, United States unveil sweeping investment deals.

Major Story

🇺🇸 🇸🇦 TRILLION DOLLAR AMBITIONS: SAUDI ARABIA, UNITED STATES UNVEIL SWEEPING INVESTMENT DEALS

President Donald Trump announced that the US and Saudi Arabia had signed $270bn in new investments, while Saudi state media claimed a much larger $557bn figure. In Washington, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman leveraged his centralised control of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth to fast-track a slew of high-profile deals, with Trump publicly urging him to increase existing pledges to $1 trillion—and even floated $1.5 trillion.

Technology and AI: The Core of the New Partnership

Saudi Arabia’s state-backed AI firm Humain unveiled major partnerships, including:

A joint venture with Elon Musk’s xAI to build a 500-megawatt AI data centre in Saudi Arabia.
A $900m investment in AI video firm Luma.
A collaboration with AMD and Cisco to deliver one gigawatt of data centre capacity.
Expanded cooperation with Amazon to deploy 150,000 AI accelerators in Riyadh’s “AI Zone.”

With energy costs up to 50% cheaper than global averages, the kingdom is positioning itself as a global AI infrastructure hub. Although no AI chip sale has yet been confirmed, Washington signalled movement, signing a “Strategic AI Partnership” that explicitly includes semiconductor supply.

Critical Minerals and Energy Expansion

A landmark deal between MP Materials and Saudi mining company Maaden will establish a rare earth refinery in the kingdom—an area where China maintains global dominance. Despite US claims of major investment, the agreement is being financed by the US Department of War and may not contribute to Trump’s headline figures. Saudi Aramco also signed 17 preliminary agreements with US firms worth more than $30bn, expanding earlier commitments in energy, LNG, and advanced materials manufacturing.

Flash and Reality

The conference produced a flurry of high-profile announcements. But as with previous Saudi investment spectacles, many pledges lack clarity on actual cash commitments. Even so, the momentum marks a major strategic shift in US-Saudi ties, with AI, minerals, and energy now at the heart of their economic relationship.

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Other News

1️⃣ 🇵🇱 🇺🇦 Poland opens terrorism probe after blast on rail line to Ukraine: Poland has launched a terrorism-related sabotage investigation after an explosion damaged a key railway line supplying Ukraine, an incident Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an “unprecedented” attempt to cause a mass-casualty derailment. Authorities say the blast, along with a second suspected sabotage attempt nearby, fits a wider pattern of Russian-linked operations aimed at destabilising European support for Kyiv.

2️⃣ 🇲🇿 🇫🇷 TotalEnergies accused of aiding war crimes at Mozambique gas project: TotalEnergies faces a criminal complaint in Paris alleging complicity in war crimes and torture over the “container massacre” at its Mozambique gas facility, where soldiers protecting the site allegedly detained, starved, tortured, and executed up to 200 men in 2021. If prosecutors proceed to trial, the case could mark a major test of corporate accountability under international justice principles.

3️⃣ 🇪🇨 Ecuador votes on foreign troop return amid spiralling cartel violence: Ecuadorians are voting on whether to lift a constitutional ban on foreign military bases, a move President Daniel Noboa argues is essential to confronting the country’s unprecedented surge in cartel-driven violence. Critics warn that inviting foreign troops risks undermining sovereignty and does little to address the deeper institutional collapse that has allowed criminal networks to thrive.

4️⃣ 🇲🇲 🇹🇭 Myanmar junta intensifies crackdown on cyber scam hubs: Myanmar’s military has launched a second major raid on industrial-scale cyber scam centres, detaining 346 foreign nationals near the Thai border. The operation follows last month’s high-profile raid, part of a broader campaign to dismantle online fraud networks responsible for billions in global losses, though critics argue the crackdown targets low-level workers while leaving the masterminds untouched.

5️⃣ 🇲🇱 🇨🇮 🇸🇳 Militants tighten blockade as fuel crisis deepens in Bamako: Fuel shortages in Bamako have spiralled into a full-blown crisis, with kilometres-long queues forming as militant attacks on supply convoys from Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire choke deliveries. Interim leader Assimi Goïta has broken two months of silence to warn that Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) is deliberately strangling the capital’s supply routes, raising fears that the jihadist group—long entrenched in the north—may now be preparing to encircle Bamako itself.