U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to welcome Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House tomorrow with the ceremonial trimmings associated with a full State Visit – a grand arrival on the South Lawn, bilateral talks in the Oval Office and a formal dinner with Congressional and business leaders – despite the visit being described as a “working meeting.”

Washington officials and Saudi counterparts say multiple economic and defense agreements are expected to be sealed, underscoring the elevated status of the visit. “State visits” are technically reserved only for heads of state, which in the case of Saudi Arabia remains King Salman. 

Behind the scenes the agenda includes a Saudi request to buy advanced fighter jets – potentially as many as 48 F‑35 stealth aircraft – from the U.S. and the prospect of a deeper U.S.-Saudi mutual-defense pact, similar to one enjoyed by Qatar.

The Saudi leader’s visit to the U.S., his first in seven years, follows Trump’s Gulf tour in May when Prince Mohammed showered the President with palace honors and contract commitments adding up to some $600 billion. 

Trump has also said repeatedly that he hopes to use this week’s visit as a springboard for bringing Saudi Arabia into the Abraham Accords fold, thereby normalizing Riyadh’s ties with Israel as part of a broader regional realignment.

Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco is set to sign U.S. liquefied natural-gas deals during the visit, reflecting the kingdom’s pivot to gas and Washington’s interest in bolstering supply chains, Reuters reports.

In addition, Riyadh’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, has recently trimmed its holdings in nine U.S.-listed companies ahead of the visit, including Visa and Pinterest, the Financial Times reports.

Emirates set the tone on Day 1 of the Dubai Airshow with a $38 billion order for 65 Boeing 777-9s, offering the aircraft giant a timely reprieve as it works to steady the long-delayed 777X program.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed, Chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline group, said at a press conference on Monday that the order is a “massive long-term commitment” to U.S. aerospace manufacturing.

The airline will also roll out SpaceX’s Starlink across its fleet, with the first flight to offer the boosted Wi-Fi service on Nov. 23.

Despite Boeing’s early lead, the bulk of the orders from one of the world’s biggest airshows is expected to be won by Airbus.

The European planemaker is closing in on a deal to supply about 100 A321neos to Flydubai, a shift that would challenge Boeing’s long-standing dominance at the low-cost carrier. 

The rivalry between Boeing and Airbus will play out at next week’s Dubai Airshow as the industry wrestles with delayed jets, geopolitical conflict and an increasingly competitive battle for orders. 

Airbus, which trails Boeing in annual orders, is especially looking to use the Middle East’s flagship aviation event to narrow the gap, Reuters reports. The European planemaker is preparing a series of announcements, hoping to regain momentum after President Donald Trump’s May trip to the Gulf produced tens of billions of dollars in Boeing orders.

Airbus sees an opening with flydubai, whose first potential order from Europe could chip away at Boeing’s dominance at the carrier, the news agency said. Emirates, celebrating its 40th anniversary, is expected to play a pivotal role in the week’s activity with around 300 aircraft orders across the show, including a possible purchase of Airbus A350-1000s.

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways is also set to boost Airbus’s tally. The airline is expected to order more than a dozen wide-body jets, adding to a growing regional bet on long-range aircraft that can sustain the global reach of Gulf hubs.

Boeing will arrive in Dubai with deals of its own, but under a cloud of fresh delays, Reuters said. The long-awaited 777X program has slipped further, pushing its entry into service seven years behind schedule.

Saudi Arabia’s influx of senior executives and wealthy expatriates is driving growth in so-called concierge and lifestyle management services.

Less familiar in the West, concierge services are a popular luxury in the Gulf, easing the transition for new arrivals and helping them through anything from bureaucratic processes to finding a new home or transporting a pet.

“We brought people from our offices around the world working with young, brilliant, talented Saudis so that the service that you can expect when you arrive is really ticked off,” Sir Ben Elliot, founder of global luxury concierge firm Quintessentially, told Arab News during the TOURISE summit in Riyadh. 

Elliot said the company is trying to accommodate customers in the ‘”avalanche of people” relocating to Saudi Arabia.

Dubai is seekng to become a global hub for sports, with the goal of boosting the economic contribution of sporting events by 80% to reach $18.3 billion by 2033.

“The ultimate vision, we want Dubai to be the world’s best sporting city,” Khalfan Belhoul, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, said.

With major events such as the 2030 Asian Games in Qatar and soccer’s 2034 FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia on the horizon, the Middle East is entering what consulting firm Oliver Wyman describes as a “defining decade” for sports.

A report published by the New York-based agency on the region’s sports economy projects $75 billion in growth potential, Arab News reports.

The report says governments have committed over $100 billion in sports infrastructure through 2034.

Saudi Arabia’s on-again, off-again effort to build the world’s tallest skyscraper is on again.

Kingdom Holding Co. says construction of its planned 1-kilometer-high Jeddah Tower has reached 74 of its 170 stories and should be completed in 2028.

The company, founded by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, began construction in 2013 but halted it amid a 2018 anti-corruption purge, during which the government detained the billionaire royal at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh. He was released three months later after agreeing to an unspecified financial settlement.

In October, Finland’s KONE Corp. won a contract to equip the building with high-speed elevators.

Preparations are moving into high gear for next week’s White House visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with an investor summit now set to take place on the sidelines.

The conference, co-hosted by the Saudi Ministry of Investment and the U.S.-Saudi Business Council, will take place on Nov. 19 at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, CBS reports. 

While still unconfirmed, the event in billed in an invitation as a platform for “exclusive business matchmaking” through which participants will “explore new investment horizons across critical sectors, including energy, technology, financial services, infrastructure, and healthcare.” 

No word yet whether the investor summit will be attended by MBS and President Donald Trump, who will meet the day before in the Oval Office and join a black-tie dinner likely to include top executives from Wall Street and Silicon Valley. When Trump visited Saudi Arabia in May, the U.S. leader joined the Crown Prince at an investor conference in Riyadh alongside Tesla’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and Citigroup’s Jane Fraser.

Already gathering in Washington are some of MBS’s top lieutenants who are meeting with Trump administration counterparts to set the agenda for talks covering some $600 million that the Saudi kingdom has committed to spending with U.S. businesses. Among the most watched was the meeting on Tuesday between Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Prince Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi Minister of Defense, met on Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff. The meeting was also attended by Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema bint Bandar.

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is joining forces with Orix, a Tokyo-based financial services company, to launch a $2.5 billion private equity vehicle hunting for opportunities across Japan.

The agreement marks the Qatar Investment Authority’s first Japan-focused PE investment, with Orix supplying 60% of the capital and QIA filling in the rest, Bloomberg reports.

Qatar joins a growing number of investment firms, including Blackstone and KKR, that are looking into buyouts in Japan.

The new Japan fund will target companies valued above $195 million, guided by an independent investment entity while both firms participate as limited partners.