The US said it’s developing a fast-track process for screening foreign investments in the US, an effort Trump administration officials expect could smooth the way for billions from wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement Thursday that the effort includes gathering information from investors based in partner nations before they file for deal approvals from US regulators, launching a Known Investor portal run by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US.
Administration officials have discussed including the three Middle East nations in the initiative, according to people familiar with the situation, ahead of President Donald Trump’s plans to visit them next week. Some European and Asian countries have also been discussed as potential partners in the program, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified as the deliberations are private and nothing has been finalized.
Fast-track status would help eliminate a major hurdle for the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, which collectively oversee trillions of dollars and drew scrutiny from CFIUS during the Biden administration over their perceived close ties to China.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent may join the US delegation to the Gulf next week to follow up on talks, which gained momentum during meetings in Washington on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring Meetings last month.
While Trump officials have taken an aggressive posture towards Beijing, they’ve been encouraged by recent measures from some Gulf states to demonstrate that Washington remains their primary partner on defense, technology and investments, some people familiar with matter said.
“Treasury is committed to maintaining and enhancing the open investment environment that benefits our economy, while making sure that process efficiencies do not diminish our ability to identify and address national security risks that can accompany foreign investment,” Bessent said in the statement.
The White House National Security Council didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“Certain investors may be well known to CFIUS — they invest a lot and file a lot with CFIUS — or are from low-risk countries,” said Emily Kilcrease, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, who previously led the US Trade Representative’s work on CFIUS. “So it makes sense to get the through the process faster than, for example, a Chinese investment.”
At a conference in Washington late last month, US Treasury officials signaled one key element of the CFIUS reform will be establishing a “knowledge base” for the main Gulf investment entities to minimize the amount of new information they file for future deals, according to people familiar with the matter.
Middle East wealth funds made up five of the top 10 most active global dealmakers last year, according to the research consultancy Global SWF. That list included three from the UAE — Mubadala Investment Co., Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and ADQ — as well as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Qatar Investment Authority.
Since Trump returned to office, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have touted lofty US investment pledges, catering to Trump’s demands for foreign cash. Still, any loosening of curbs on Gulf countries could face push-back within the US and Trump officials would have to iron out details.
“How will the administration weigh the geopolitical and economic benefits of deeper investment ties with the Gulf against the possibility of increasing national security risks, including the possibility of indirect technology leakage to China?” Kilcrease said. “This is particularly important given the Gulf states’ ambitions to become global tech leaders and their existing footprint of investment in high tech areas.”
The UAE, which is racing to become a tech powerhouse in its own right, has also been eager to win greater access to advanced Nvidia Corp. chips that had been restricted during the Biden administration.
Earlier this year, the Gulf nation promised Trump $1.4 trillion in US spending over the coming decade. That’s helped accelerate conversations about potentially easing restrictions on chip sales to Abu Dhabi, Bloomberg News has reported.
The Trump administration now plans to rescind some Biden-era AI chip curbs as part of a broader effort to revise global semiconductor trade restrictions and could focus on direct negotiations with nations like the UAE or Saudi Arabia.
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