Ahead of Trump visit, New Jersey courts Gulf investment

• State seeks partnerships
• AI infrastructure focus
• Academic ties proposed

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.

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Murphy’s visit to the world’s largest oil producing region comes as Gulf sovereign wealth funds, including Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), ramp up investment in US technology and infrastructure. 

Abu Dhabi’s MGX Fund Management Ltd., together with BlackRock and Microsoft, launched the AI Infrastructure Partnership earlier this year to raise $30 billion and deploy up to $100 billion, including in debt, into AI data centres and power systems. Nvidia and Elon Musk’s xAI joined the platform. 

MGX chief investment officer Ali Osman said at a conference in the US last week that the emirate-owned company plans to deploy as much as $10 billion a year into AI infrastructure and companies, mainly in the US.

Beyond digital infrastructure, traditional infrastructure investment opportunities “are on the table,” highlighting New Jersey’s status as “the most densely populated state in America,” Governor Murphy said.

Higher education is another focus. New Jersey, home to world-ranked universities including Princeton, is seeking to expand research partnerships. 

During the visit so far, Rutgers University signed a letter of intent with King Saud University to collaborate in urban planning, public policy and business management.