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Trump Signs Bill to Release All Epstein Files, Justice Department Has 30 Days to Comply; Nvidia Reports Strong Earnings; Trump Administration Quietly Working on Peace Plan with Russia; Freed Israeli Hostage Tells of Painful Captivity; Doubt Surrounds U.N. Approval of Trump's Peace Plan for Gaza; Saudi's Humain Announces Major Deals with U.S. Companies. Aired 10- 11a ET

Aired November 20, 2025 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): And welcome to the second hour of the show from our Middle East programming headquarters. I'm Becky Anderson

in Abu Dhabi, where the time is just after 7 in the evening.

After months of pushing back, president Trump signs the bill releasing the Epstein files.

U.S. markets are looking at economic data today, which is painting a mixed picture for the economy.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's president sat down with Pentagon officials after a deadly night in the west of the country.

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ANDERSON: Signed into law, a bill ordering the Justice Department to release the full Epstein case files. But there were no TV cameras to

capture what was a monumental moment. Instead, Mr. Trump made the announcement via a lengthy social media post.

In it, he continued to claim the Democratic Party had more to lose from any new Epstein revelations, posting, quote, "This latest hoax will backfire on

the Democrats."

So what happens now?

Well, the DOJ has 30 days to make those documents public. Attorney general Pam Bondi, for her part, is promising that the department will follow the

law. Well, joining us to discuss is CNN Politics senior reporter and good friend of the show, Stephen Collinson.

Always good to have you. Right.

What happens now at the Justice Department?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good question. Washington was in a state of euphoria at the start of yesterday when the

congressional measures went through to release these documents, compelling the Justice Department to act.

That has been replaced by a real sense of inertia. Nobody knows what's going to happen next. The Justice Department now has 30 days to release

this files.

And the question now becomes, how do they do this?

There are plenty of loopholes in this administration which they could exploit. Information that is sexually explicit, that exposes witnesses,

cannot be released. Any information that is judged to harm national security could also be an issue here. And that could give the department an

excuse not to release material.

And this is hardly, you know, the kind of Justice Department whose word you can trust. It's become a fully paid-up member of president Donald Trump's

political machine. He uses it to further his own goals.

So I think there's going to be a great deal of suspicion about whether the department really does release all of the information, which the law now

compels it to release.

ANDERSON: Yes. I mean, there are, as always, it seems, loopholes. DOJ can withhold some files that may identify victims or that relate to ongoing

investigations.

The question really is, will we ever see these full files?

You write, "Epstein survivors and Trump critics are turning to the next stage of the political battle over these documents."

Explain.

COLLINSON: Yes. So I don't believe that this vote in the Congress would have happened were it not for the Epstein survivors becoming far more vocal

and visible from the late summer onwards.

Now all of that intense political pressure is going to be directed back toward the president, rather than diffused among hundreds of members of

Congress. So I think that is going to be an important factor here.

Can they compel the White House to go further than it wants to?

The other issue, I think, is, you know, you saw a lot of Republicans in Congress sign up to passing this bill because it was becoming a political

problem for them. It was a historic breach with the president. We've never seen that level of Republican rebellion before.

But are they going to be willing to indulge in the kind of congressional oversight and pressure that would be required to try to get those files

released from the Justice Department?

[10:05:04]

Are they going to hold the president's feet to the fire, in other words?

That I think is going to be crucial. I'm a little skeptical that, despite breaking with the president over this, many Republicans are going to think

it's in their long-term interests to really isolate him over the Epstein issue.

But we've been surprised before. This is an extraordinary story that has cast a great wave of political consequences. So I don't think we should

rule it out.

ANDERSON: In announcing that he'd signed the bill, Donald Trump focused squarely on Democrats writing this on Truth Social, quote, "Perhaps the

truth about these Democrats and their associations with Epstein will soon be revealed."

I mean, there are many who are saying that this is a new strategy.

Do you?

What do you make of it?

COLLINSON: Well, I think there's some truth in what Trump says. We know that the Epstein files are likely to show information about his

associations with all sorts of people through politics, through business, entertainment, even royalty.

And since the release of the files last week by a small section of files by Congress, we've seen the aftereffects. Lawrence Summers, the former U.S.

Treasury Secretary, has had to step back from a number of high-profile posts because emails showed he was still conversing with Epstein.

A member representative who represents the U.S. Virgin Islands in Congress, Stacey Plaskett, was seen -- was revealed to be texting Epstein during a

congressional hearing. There's no sense that either of these people have any criminal concerns to worry about.

But a lot of people associated with Epstein, I think one of the hopes of the White House will be that, even if information comes out and tells us

more about what Donald Trump did in his friendship with Epstein, again, no criminal apparent liability.

It will cast a wide net and it will perhaps, you know, cause suspicion about a whole lot of people. And that might temper the political impact on

the president.

That said, the president is the most famous man in the world. He's got a massively high profile. Everybody is going to go through these documents

and see if there are any new things we can learn about what president Trump knew about Epstein and his friendship with Epstein earlier in this century.

So there's going to be a very strong spotlight on him yes.

ANDERSON: Look, the White House, it seems, at least trying to accelerate past this controversy and focus on next year's midterm elections November

of 2026. Long-time GOP operative Alex Poitevint (ph) compares the Epstein conspiracies to, quote, "moon landing status," effectively saying, you

know, they're not going to be able to move on from this.

Will this ever go away like Trump and the administration clearly hopes it will?

COLLINSON: You know, people are still talking about the Kennedy assassination, which was even before the moon landing, and the conspiracies

around that.

So I don't think anything will ever satisfy those parts of the Republican base who see this massive conspiracy of a corrupt elite, revealed by what

we've learned about Washington's dealings with Jeffrey Epstein.

It's the nature of conspiracy theories that disclosure doesn't help; it often creates new avenues of conspiracy for people to go down. So I don't

think it's likely that we'll probably ever see all of the Epstein files. That might require another administration to come in and clean that up.

And questions about this, I think, are going to reverberate for many years, especially if some of these files are withheld for national security

purposes.

ANDERSON: Yes. It's always good to have you, sir. Thank you very much indeed.

Stephen Collinson in the house out of D.C.

Right. The world's most valuable company is sending a positive message to investors. AI star Nvidia is enjoying blockbuster earnings. Its sales grew

by -- grew to $57 billion in the third quarter. That is up 62 percent from the same time last year.

Here's how the chip giant is faring on Wall Street. They like these numbers. These numbers are, of course, after the bell yesterday. Most of

the world's AI technology, of course, runs on Nvidia chips.

[10:10:00]

And the company doesn't see the AI spending spree slowing any time soon, even amid recent worries over an AI bubble. CNN's Clare Duffy joining me

now from New York.

You've had some time to reflect on these numbers.

It posted profits of, what, $31.9 billion; sales grew 62 percent over the year. Take us through the numbers and explain where that money is actually

coming from, Clare.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Becky. Both sales and profits up more than 60 percent year over year. That is just a massive number. And

really crucially, Nvidia also noted that it is guiding for its current quarter sales higher than Wall Street was expecting.

So Nvidia really trying to underscore here their argument, that the AI boom is not slowing down anytime soon. And much of this money, of course, is

coming from its data center business, from these other major tech companies, like Google and Meta and Amazon investing in AI data centers and

using Nvidia chips.

And, of course, this was such a closely watched earnings report because the market rally this year has really been driven by the AI boom. And as you

said, Nvidia is at the heart of it. It's become both literally the backbone of the AI industry, because its chips power this technology, but also

emblematic of the direction of AI.

And so this is really a positive report, not just for Nvidia but the larger tech industry and the larger market. Nvidia makes up about 8 percent of the

total value of the S&P 500. And so whatever happens to this company has huge ripple effects for nearly every investor and 401(k) holder.

And I think the real takeaway that Nvidia tried to express during its earnings call is this idea that AI is driving real value for the companies

that adopt it. Again, trying to bat down these concerns about an AI bubble.

It took the unusual step of ticking through the results of other companies during its earnings call, its customers, like Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI,

Palantir, and talking about the ways that they are seeing greater efficiency and greater value by adopting artificial intelligence.

So I think the real message from Nvidia during this call is, everybody relax. The AI bubble is not bursting anytime soon. And in fact, AI demand

continues to grow, Becky.

ANDERSON: Good to have you. Thank you very much indeed.

All right. In Western Ukraine, rescue crews have been searching through rubble after a Tuesday night attack on apartment buildings that killed more

than 20 people, including children. About 100 others were injured and 20 people are missing. The attack prompted NATO to scramble fighter jets over

Poland and Romania.

Ukraine's president just met with a high-level delegation from the Pentagon, according to a source. They were expected to discuss a reported

peace plan for the war that the U.S. has been hashing out with Russia. Well, Clare Sebastian following developments for us from London.

Let's start with that attack, because it is casting a shadow, as these latest reported U.S. attempts to forge peace are underway.

What more can you tell us about what's happening on the ground in the first instance?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Becky, look, I think it's clear this was a major attack. And obviously about 200 kilometers from NATO

territory in Western Ukraine.

As we know, it caused Poland and Romania to scramble jets. Romania saying that one of the drones did stray into its territory. So it was very

significant. Ukraine is still dealing with the wreckage there. Some 22 people were said to be missing by president Zelenskyy this morning, on top

of the 26 deaths, including three children.

So a very major attack and a very deadly night overnight into Wednesday for Ukrainian civilians. I think what this reveals, that obviously we know

Russia has said flatly that it will not agree to any kind of ceasefire before a peace deal. So clearly it's sticking to that.

I think it also shows that Russia is in a period of escalation here. It's attempting, obviously, to weaken Ukraine going into winter. There were also

energy facilities that were hit. We're seeing rolling Blackouts throughout the country.

I think it's also trying to expose European weaknesses. Obviously, we've seen a number of incidents this week. The attack on the Polish train line,

a Russian spy ship edging close to U.K. waters. Russia has refused to comment on that and has flatly denied involvement in the train attack.

But that is part of the picture here. And I think perhaps also to convince the U.S. that the quickest way to end this is to do it on Russia's terms by

attempting to look like the winning party here. So that is the bigger picture.

I think, obviously, when we look at what the U.S. may be attempting to do with these behind-the scenes-talks, this reported 28-point peace plan, you

know, they perhaps are trying to instigate progress here. But it certainly looks like a backwards step.

The peace plan, according to the details that are coming out, according to a Western official with knowledge of the documents speaking to CNN, they

don't seem to suggest any progress beyond the situation last month.

[10:15:00]

At which point the talks stalled. Russia's maximalist demands, including that Ukraine give up the whole of Donetsk region, that Russia doesn't even

occupy all of yet, that remains on the table. Ukraine reducing the size of its military remains on the table.

All of this a nonstarter for Kyiv. And it's confusing, given that we've seen the U.S. ramping up pressure on Russia in recent months. So difficult

to know where the diplomacy goes from here. But certainly Russia seems to be sticking to its maximalist strategy, Becky.

ANDERSON: Good to have you, Clare. Thank you very much.

You're up to date. Still to come on CNN, as 32 people are killed in the latest Israeli strikes on Gaza, we look at the hope and skepticism in some

quarters surrounding the U.N.'s adoption of Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza.

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ANDERSON (voice-over): The Palestinian health ministry reports at least 32 people have been killed in the latest round of Israeli strikes across Gaza;

12 children are among the dead. Here is how one man described the attacks.

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AKRAM ISWAIR, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): We were sitting peacefully after the sunset prayers when we saw missiles amid a truce

agreed upon in front of the world, in front of Russia, France, Italy, all of them.

And the United States had signed on it. Missiles struck the displaced poor citizens.

What can we, our women and our families, do?

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ANDERSON: Hamas says the attacks are dangerous escalation and it is urging the United States to put pressure on Israel to stop. For its part, Israel

says the strikes were in response to Hamas attacking IDF soldiers, an accusation that Hamas has rejected.

Well, a newly-freed Israeli hostage will meet with president Trump in Washington today. Bar Kupershtein says his faith helped him survive during

his captivity. CNN's Oren Liebermann had a chance to speak with him.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Bar Kupershtein, thank you for sitting down with us. How are you and how is it to be back in Israel?

BAR KUPERSHTEIN, FREED ISRAELI HOSTAGE: It's an amazing feeling, there is excitement every day when you wake up in the morning here and you are alive

and breathing. I thank God every day for this.

LIEBERMANN: Take me back to the 7th of October. What do you remember from that day?

KUPERSHTEIN: Everything. It is etched here in my mind for the rest of my life.

LIEBERMANN: You came out of captivity a month ago. You've told your story. You've spoken at Hostages Square. What is it that even when they hear your

story, people simply can't understand about what you went through?

KUPERSHTEIN: There were moments when they tried to execute us, when they starved us, when they abused us, whether with beatings, physically,

verbally, depriving us from basic human conditions.

[10:20:08]

It was awful, you feel like the most miserable person in the world. Whatever we went through, we

said among ourselves that we are simply in hell. I think that God put us in a kind of test. We told ourselves that we are now at the lowest point, the

bottom of the bottom and from there we can only go up.

LIEBERMANN: You've talked about your religion and how it became stronger while you were in captivity. How?

Why?

KUPERSHTEIN: In captivity, one really connects to God, you talk to him, not once or twice -- I was supposed to be killed, in bombings or something

else

in these whole two years, every day was a miracle that I stayed alive -- and you want to express gratitude for that, so you give what you can of

yourself.

LIEBERMANN: You're going to the United States. You're going to meet President Donald Trump. What are you going to say to him?

KUPERSHTEIN: First of all, thank you very much. He played a big part in us getting out of there and I don't know what else, I guess whatever is in my

heart. I see him as an emissary of God. God said we needed to get out of there and he was the emissary. He did it.

LIEBERMANN: Bar, thank you for your time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Right. Well, we are following continued reaction this hour to the U.N. Security Council's critical decision to pass president Donald

Trump's peace plan for Gaza. The U.S. leader praised Monday's vote that authorizes elements of his 20-point peace plan on how to move past the

ceasefire and rebuild Gaza.

However, a number of diplomatic sources tell CNN the lack of details and clear language in the plan will make it difficult to put into effect, now

doubtful the current ceasefire will even hold.

In fact, Hamas, already warning of a dangerous escalation. That after Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 32 people overnight as we have

been reporting. So I want to do more on this. Let's bring in former deputy head of Israel's National Security Council, Eran Etzion, for his

perspective.

It's an important day to have you on. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. You have said that the new U.N. Security Council resolution on

Gaza set several dangerous precedents. Explain, if you will.

ERAN ETZION, FORMER DEPUTY HEAD, ISRAELI NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Yes. Again, good to be here. Thanks for having me.

It did set a number of dangerous precedents, because what it did essentially is akin to creating a shell company headed by Trump, that will

take sovereignty with unlimited responsibility to the entire Gaza Strip.

Which is unprecedented, not only in the annals of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but, at least as far as I know, in the annals of international

relations. It is unprecedented.

Secondly, it detaches the whole arrangement from the rich history of the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflict. It doesn't mention previous

National Security Council or U.N. resolutions. It doesn't reference any previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

It creates -- it kinds of lives in a -- in a historical vacuum and then it creates an international stabilization force, an international force to

enter Gaza, also, without all the common language and all the normal attributes that we are familiar with regard to other interventions of the

international community in various conflicts.

So -- and, of course, it continues to detach Gaza from the West Bank. So it does create a bubble. And one finds it difficult to believe that it can

actually materialize.

ANDERSON: I guess -- with the greatest of respect -- there will be those who say, well, what is the alternative at this point?

ETZION: Good question. To put it simply, there was an alternative, even under the Biden administration, the so-called Biden plan, which was --

which had many commonalities with this overall scheme but was 1.5 years ago. So we could have saved multiple lives and we would have been in a much

better situation in many respects.

And probably Biden would have followed a much more, shall we say, traditional, consensual, legal, normal way of putting it in place. So that

that's one thing I would say.

And the other is that, of course, with a different attitude by a different Israeli government that actually favors the two-state solution rather than

object to it.

[10:25:08]

Also, this would have put us in a very different place. Just yesterday, President Trump hosted MBS, the Saudi prince. And his condition for real,

serious Saudi intervention, positive intervention in the conflict, is simply a credible path to a two-state solution adopted by the government of

Israel.

So this kind of adoption would have helped, would have gone a long way in order to, shall we say, upgrade the possibilities of chances for any -- for

any credible path to peace, to stabilization, to resolution of the conflict, to be conducive, constructive.

ANDERSON: But you know, I guess that begs the question.

Was there ever any chance that Netanyahu was going to concede to the Saudi demand and talk about the, you know, a legitimate Palestinian state?

ETZION: Talk about, maybe; he has talked about it in the past. But his entire ideology, his entire policy, his entire strategy since he entered

politics 30 years ago, was exactly the opposite.

It was all about making sure Palestinian state is not created and that the Oslo accords are annihilated.

And he is pursuing every avenue to try and make it reality, not only in Gaza, also in the West Bank, in which he unleashes massive amounts of

settler terrorism, unprecedented, and is applying all sorts of government entities and levers in order to try and collapse the Palestinian Authority,

financially and otherwise.

So when we look at the overall situation, we have two spoilers. We have, obviously, Hamas, who has taken -- retaken control of Gaza; 50 percent of

the territory, 100 percent of the population, 2.3 million Gazans that now live under its total control, even after two years of war.

So -- and, of course, he's reluctant to disarm, does not accept the resolution and does not accept the 20-point plan on the one hand.

And on the other, we have Netanyahu and his government, who are also spoilers, who also did not accept, contrary to the language of the

resolution, that did not accept the 20-point plan. Neither side has accepted the 20-point plan.

ANDERSON: Yes.

ETZION: And Netanyahu's government is operating to try and scuttle the agreement and the resolution, both in Gaza and also simultaneously to

inflame the West Bank and to collapse the Palestinian Authority.

ANDERSON: You have said that, whether Netanyahu publicly blesses this resolution or not, he sees it as a success. The chances of the Trump

framework collapsing and the war resuming remain high and the burden of proof will not be on him. That is a pretty pessimistic view.

But I understand and many watching this will understand why it is that you feel like that.

I mean, do you believe that this truce is likely to fall apart at this point?

ETZION: It's at least as likely to fall apart as it is to be maintained.

And as I said, we have the two spoilers. We have Trump, who is now in charge officially in an unprecedented way, and he has to pull all the

levers of the U.S. government and the U.S. allies in this matter.

Which are the Egyptians, the Qataris, the Turks, the UAE and others, in order to try and, first and foremost, to sustain the ceasefire, to prevent

it from collapsing. And it's very fragile.

And then to build the ISF, which is a huge challenge because no country is actually willing to go in and fight Hamas. So they are already negotiating,

the U.S. for the first time in history, also, another president negotiating directly with Hamas and also empowering Qatar and Turkiye to negotiate with

Hamas.

So perhaps in this combination of political negotiations with Hamas and threats of renewing the war, maybe, maybe Hamas can be persuaded to disarm.

That's a very big if.

But it's a condition. Unless Hamas disarms, we will not have stability. And on the other hand, we need to have a radical change in the policy of the

Israeli government, which is not possible under this government.

Israel is slated to go for elections in November or earlier. And the next Israeli government should adopt a very different strategy and policy vis-a-

vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its entire strategic posture.

[10:30:04]

Including vis-a-vis its friends in Europe and elsewhere. So bottom line --

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: -- and I've got -- I've got 60 seconds.

I just want to ask you, you know, what's the future for Benjamin Netanyahu at this point?

ETZION: He's standing trial. He's under a lot of pressure, legal pressure, political pressure. And he is not a young person, on the one hand.

On the other, he is pulling all the stops. He is acting like an autocrat in being -- he's taking over all of Israel's institutions in legal and illegal

means. He's threatening now to fire the attorney general and pave the way to the cancellation of his trial.

And Trump, by the way, is intervening in his favor, too, in that regard. So he's -- it's hard to judge, you know, how strong or how feeble his position

is. He -- and the problem is that he's applying the textbook of autocrats taking over democracies. So as an Israeli citizen, this situation is of

extreme concern to the entire pro-democratic camp in Israel.

ANDERSON: Thank you for your insight and your analysis. It's important, as we continue to follow this story.

We're back after a quick break. Stay with us.

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ANDERSON: You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson. These are your headlines.

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ANDERSON (voice-over): Now the long-awaited U.S. jobs report offers a mixed picture of the labor market. The economy added 119,000 jobs in

September, up from August's revised job losses.

The report also highlighted a weak point for the labor market, unemployment rising to its highest level that it's been in nearly four years.

President Donald Trump has signed a bill directing the U.S. Justice Department to release all the Jeffrey Epstein files, Mr. Trump had

previously opposed the release but changed course after facing pushback, significant pushback, from members of his own Republican Party. The DOJ now

has 30 days to make the documents public.

Well, a source tells CNN Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met top Pentagon officials in Kyiv today to discuss a reported U.S. drafted plan to

end Russia's war on the country. The plan would include ceding territory to Russia. One Ukrainian lawmaker calls it a nonstarter.

Well, the defense deal struck between the United States and Saudi Arabia this week have been headline news.

[10:35:00]

I want to focus on the business side of things as well. At the core of that trip was artificial intelligence. While it straddles both of those files,

it is a key pillar of Saudi Arabia's economic ambitions.

Saudi officials met with some of the most powerful industry titans in the world, frankly, on Wednesday, eager to build out relationships in what has

become one of the kingdom's biggest bets on its future.

The vehicle to achieve that bet is the company called Humain. It's backed by the country's Public Investment Fund. Just take a look at some of the

partnerships with U.S. companies unveiled yesterday. We're talking Nvidia, xAI and Adobe just to tick off a few. You've got the others there on your

screen.

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ANDERSON (voice-over): I want to home in on Luma for a moment. Specifically, it's an AI startup in California, which instantly generates

videos from simple text prompts, videos like the one you are seeing on your screen right now.

Well, I spoke with the CEO last month when I was in Riyadh about how crucial its partnership with Humain is. Have a listen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMIT JAIN, CEO, LUMA: To make this possible, we need a partner like Humain that is going all the way bottom from, you know, data centers, chips,

services.

ANDERSON: Is the risk to your business that you simply won't be able to get your hands on sufficient --

(CROSSTALK)

JAIN: That's right.

ANDERSON: -- compute?

JAIN: That is the thing that keeps me up, basically, not having access to the compute that is necessary to make these and to deploy these.

ANDERSON: That will be the difference between you having first move advantage and being a multibillion dollar company, perhaps, going forward

and you not surviving?

JAIN: That's right, that's right. It's a binary outcome. It's entirely an binary outcome. It's not like, you know, with just like 10 percent more

compute, we can do something better. No, you either have to have the scale and at scale it works. But if you don't have that, then you know, yes, it's

better to just go do something else.

ANDERSON: And you're convinced that this investment is absolutely worth it. The sort of, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars we're seeing

without any return on investment to date?

JAIN: The ramp of revenue of AI companies, including Luma, actually, it is faster than any other SaaS company that has ever been before. And there's a

very fundamental reason for that.

These are general models. They apply to many industries. When we're talking about Luma, we're not saying Luma is for advertising. Luma is for every use

case of video.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, at the investment summit in Washington on Wednesday, Luma announced it has raised $900 million, money that will be put toward

building out two gigawatts of computing infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. That's being billed as an AI supercluster.

Well, I had the chance to catch up with the CEO of another startup, partnering with Humain, who was also in Washington this week. Amjad Masad

is the head of Replit. It's a company that builds out entire apps with AI.

Take a listen to what he had to tell me ahead of his trip to Washington about why he thinks a partnership with the Saudi AI company could reshape

the region.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): It turns out the next great developer is you. All you need is an idea, because, with Replit, anyone can build apps

in seconds.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Whether you're a small business owner, an employee or working on your side hustle, AI startup Replit says it can revolutionize

your life through vibe coding, which was just named Collins Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2025.

Their blog put it in plain terms as, quote, "basically telling a machine what you want rather than painstakingly coding it yourself."

Replit CEO Amjad Masad was an early leader in this movement and is now entering a major partnership with Saudi Arabia's end-to-end AI champion

Humain.

ANDERSON: You're Palestinian-Jordanian. You built the first version of Replit in the Middle East.

Could you reflect on your heritage, how it shaped your journey to Silicon Valley and has brought you back to the region?

AMJAD MASAD, CEO, REPLIT: I started working on it as an open source project back in 2010. And it was the first -- I created an open source

project that was a breakthrough. It was the first time that you can run a bunch of different programming languages in the browser and it became a

worldwide phenomenon overnight.

And that got me an O-1 visa to go to the United States, where I worked at Codecademy and we taught 50 million people how to code. And that's when I

started learning, hearing those stories that we're hearing every day today.

I'm an entrepreneur. I didn't know how to code. I'm a fitness trainer. I had this idea for a fitness app and now I'm making hundreds of thousands of

dollars. And you know, from my story and my heritage is, you know, we -- when my father came to this country, to Jordan, as refugees, we didn't have

much.

[10:40:00]

And so, you know, me being able to go all the way from, a very humble place to becoming a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company in the United States, I

think this opportunity could be available to anyone in the world. And that's what gets us really excited.

ANDERSON: Your partnership with Humain aims to use the platform to turn the kingdom into a, quote, "nation of AI coders, students, entrepreneurs,

businesses, knowledge workers, all building their own applications just by typing in what they need."

And the stated goal is to make coding as natural as writing. That is incredibly ambitious.

How do you get there?

And if you can, just drill down on the specifics a little bit for me.

MASAD: Well, Becky, you know, it's worth thinking about other eras and other transformational technology that has happened in the past.

So if you think about Africa and how Africa went from not having telephone lines all the way to being early adopters of cell phones and even early

adopter of peer-to-peer payments. So you know, it's called the leapfrog effect.

And I think, you know, countries like Saudi Arabia and even Jordan, UAE and other places might have been a little behind on the software revolution.

And not many people learned how to code. And there wasn't as many developers in this region.

But we have an opportunity to actually go at the elementary level, at the school level and teach them vibe coding, because coding is so much more

accessible. If we incorporate into the curriculum, then you're going to have a generation of people that are all able to create with AI in a way

that's never been done before.

And so we're going to create an entire generation of people that are just going to leapfrog the old ways of doing software and they're going to be

new AI creators of the future.

ANDERSON: What's the long view on the partnership in Saudi Arabia?

And do you have ambitions to expand partnerships with other countries across this region, the Gulf and Middle East?

MASAD: I am very inspired by Tareq's vision and the leadership in Saudi Arabia around Humain. They're building like insane infrastructure, to be

honest. They're doing all the way from the nuts and bolts to the operating system to the software.

And they need a programming environment, a development environment and development community on top of that. And that's where Replit comes in.

Humain is going to be an amazing platform with Humain One as the operating system. It's going to be an agent-first platform and Replit is the best

place to go build AI agents. And so it fits really nicely.

In terms of expanding to the region, yes. We're going to work with Humain to expand to the rest of the GCC.

ANDERSON: How concerned are you that, despite this massive investment at present and the massive speed at which we see the development of AI tools,

that there could be a big AI bubble in the offing here?

And that there is a risk at this point that we don't get to the point at which you are sitting, where you say, I see the outcomes, I see the value,

it works?

MASAD: I don't think that we are at some kind of height of an AI bubble that's going to burst, because if you, you know, you're right that they're

building a lot.

But every time a data center comes online, it immediately gets used. You talk to any of the AI labs, they're all compute constrained, not just on

inference but their training. They want to train more. They want to do more. So far, the buildup doesn't feel crazy to me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: All right. The CEO of Replit there.

Fascinating, isn't it?

We're back after this quick break.

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[10:45:00]

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ANDERSON: Well, it's been a landmark week for the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. He is back at the center of the world stage after a

visit to Washington that included red carpet treatment from U.S. president Donald Trump and a host of bilateral agreements, aimed at enhancing the two

countries' security and economic ties.

Now one of the more notable ones, a deal on nuclear cooperation. The stated goal: to bring American nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and keep a firm

commitment to nonproliferation.

I want to bring in Kirsten Fontenrose, president of security advisory firm Red Six Solutions. She's also a former senior director for the Gulf at the

National Security Council. Couldn't be better served to talk about this trip and what came out of it.

President Trump said this week, we've always been on the same side of every issue, referring to MBS, the crown prince. His trip in the U.S. has been

extremely successful for the crown prince. He's seemingly gotten very -- a lot of what he what he wants out of this relationship.

What do you make of this relationship between Trump and the crown prince, de facto leader of Saudi Arabia?

KIRSTEN FONTENROSE, FORMER SENIOR DIRECTOR, GULF-U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: They have a really strong relationship, where they both think

they share the same goals for their countries. For instance, they're both looking at prioritizing economic development domestically.

They're both looking at trying to make the world believe that they are a power in their own right. So having nothing to do with their relationship

with other countries but that they can wield power on the international stage independently.

And together doing this makes them a force for good. So you'll notice that most of the conversations will be about trade, will be about defense,

security, cooperation or about partnering on things like reconstruction of Gaza.

They're really looking at how they can make a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

ANDERSON: Yes. Trump approved the sale of the F-35s to Saudi, described by the Atlantic Council as, quote, "Trump going all in on the U.S.-Saudi

relationship."

What's your view on this sale and what it signals?

FONTENROSE: Saudi is looking to get about 48 of these F-35s and it's over about a seven-year delivery timeline, which means that's a long

relationship anchor there. It's also going to create jobs in 49 U.S. states.

There's a piece of the F-35 created in every single one of those states. And for Saudi, they see it as both a deterrent message to primarily Iran

but really any also proxy potential enemy, that they have not only the finest new airpower but they also are interoperable with the U.S.

So it's a signal that we are at the top of the line. Our defenses are spectacular. And should we need help, American pilots can literally plug

and play with our new equipment.

In essence, don't mess with us. And it really does make them more interoperable with the U.S. So in the event that there is a crisis, whether

it's to Saudi security or the region writ large, the two can play together, can conduct military operations in full coordination, using the same

platform, using that F-35.

ANDERSON: What does it mean for Israel, this deal in region?

FONTENROSE: Well, it could mean for Israel that they have another interoperable partner because they're the only other region in the nation

that has the F-35. Israel right now is saying this might be an unpredictable country. You don't know what will happen tomorrow or in a

year or 10 years in Saudi Arabia.

As with any country, certainly in terms of questions about succession ever or what happens in any society where there's a single decisionmaker, you

can't control what happens if should lightning strike.

So Israel is saying, look, we like the partner we have there now. But since this is putting a very strong capability in the hands of an entire nation's

leadership.

[10:50:00]

We're not really comfortable with it. We're too close. You know, it would take a lot for the Saudis or anyone to fly an F-35 all the way to the U.S.

and get away with something. But Israel is very close by.

And the Saudis having that system, what if it should fall into the hands of Iran?

What if it should fall into the hands of Al Qaeda or some other organization?

It makes the Israelis very nervous.

So they say, hey, U.S., we'd really prefer you not sell this because it poses a potential threat to us. It means we have to stay at a certain level

of readiness, which is expensive --

(AUDIO GAP)

ANDERSON: Yes.

FONTENROSE: We're not we're not going to see a threat from this in the future.

Well, that's disappointing.

OK. We just -- you just went to black for a for a moment but I've got you back. Look, talking about Israel and its capabilities, it was an Israeli

strike on Doha, on Hamas very specifically, and the Iranian strike on the American base in Doha, just all in the last six months.

Both of those attacks, of course, that have led this region to feel very iffy about the reliability of the U.S. as a security guarantor. Doha has

got a deeper defense security agreement with Washington.

At this point, the Saudi crown prince, I am told on very good authority, is looking for as deep, if not deeper, a commitment from Washington.

When you look at what he got out of Donald Trump, did he get sufficient as far as he will be concerned?

FONTENROSE: He got as sufficient as he's going to get without a lengthy and difficult congressional process.

So it does go deeper than what Qatar received in the 2025 executive order from the president, reaffirming U.S. concern for Qatari security.

We also had an upgraded security agreement with Bahrain that was signed during the Biden administration that, at that time, was the strongest

agreement we have with a Gulf partner.

So in this one, though, Saudi has a more specific agreement. It's a guarantee of continued U.S. military presence in the kingdom. It's a

guarantee to respond if they are threatened. It's a deeper industrial integration.

They can do joint development with the U.S. on military defense articles, co-production; really, really feeds into all of the defense and industrial

goals of Vision 2030.

So if you're Mohammed bin Salman or the Saudis writ large, this is a great way to bolster your Vision 2030 goals. Being a NATO, not major non-NATO

ally and then also the security agreement really kind of pushes you, catalyzes your own, your own goals. It, it's given -- it's not quite an

Article V but it is, given the --

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: Yes. Yes. And the crown prince really, you know, you should -- the sense is he will not decouple what he gets as far as investment into

his project or Vision 2030 so far as the economic files are concerned from his, you know, ability to project power around the region.

Both go hand-in-hand to a degree when you look at that Saudi first agenda. I'm going to have to go. It's always a pleasure having you on the show.

Thank you very much indeed for joining us. We'll speak again.

Still ahead right now, dignitaries and others are gathering at the invitation-only funeral for former vice president Dick Cheney. That is

straight ahead.

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[10:55:00]

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ANDERSON (voice-over): Well, a who's who of Washington is gathering right now for the invitation-only funeral for former U.S. vice president Dick

Cheney. The 84-year-old Republican died earlier this month.

The funeral service will be bipartisan, with former U.S. presidents and vice presidents joining guests at Washington National Cathedral. But a

source says the current U.S. president and vice president were not invited.

Scheduled to speak, former president George W. Bush, former NBC News correspondent Pete Williams and Cheney's daughter, former congresswoman Liz

Cheney.

Well, that's it for CONNECT THE WORLD. It's good to have you -- have had you on board. Do stay with CNN, though. "ONE WORLD" is up next.

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