Ahead of Trump visit, New Jersey courts Gulf investment

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is leading a mission to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain as US states compete for a share of more than $2 trillion of investment and trade which Gulf Arab countries have pledged to the US over the next decade.

The trip, which ends on Saturday, comes just two weeks before President Donald Trump travels to the region on his first international visit since becoming president in January, bar the funeral last week of Pope Francis in Rome.

Between them, the two largest Arab economies – Saudi Arabia and the UAE – have pledged $2.1 trillion of investment and trade with the US; Saudi Arabia $600 billion over the four years of Trump’s second presidency and the UAE over a decade. 

All this is against the backdrop of the highest US tariffs on imports in more than a century, as Trump seeks to stem and reverse the loss of US jobs to international competitors and encourage more inward investment.

“If that’s the world we’re going to be in, it makes an investment into a place like New Jersey even more compelling; to be inside the ring fence… not just of New Jersey but of America,” Murphy told AGBI in Dubai.

New Jersey, which neighbours New York City, is the 10th biggest economy among the 50 US states.

Murphy’s mission focuses on a range of activities ranging from technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and life sciences to infrastructure and higher education, with meetings planned with sovereign wealth funds, private investors and academic institutions.

Murphy expects to announce “a major new investment that will bring hundreds of new jobs to New Jersey from a company headquartered in the region,” alongside academic partnerships, he said, without being more specific.

AI is a major focus, Murphy said, pointing to New Jersey’s AI hub launched with Princeton University, Microsoft and CoreWeave – a hyperscaler valued at $19 billion – as a model for deeper collaboration. 

Hyperscalers provide cloud computing and data management services to organisations that require vast infrastructure for large-scale data processing and storage.

Read the full story from AGBI here.