2008
- Stanford announces it will help the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) design curriculum, in exchange for $25 million over 5 years.
- Stanford uses another $25 from KAUST to establish a new research center aimed at making solar power cost-competitive with coal.
2011
- Stanford launches “trilateral” research collaboration with the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) and Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company.
- Saudi Aramco endows a professorship in Earth Sciences named after Max Steineke, the Stanford alum whose drilling transformed Saudi Arabia’s oil industry.
2012
- CEO of Saudi Aramco speaks at Stanford for the Graduate School of Business’s “View from the Top” series.
2014
- Stanford and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) create the Center of Excellence in Aeronautics and Astronautics.
2015
- March: Saudi Arabia begins military intervention in Yemen. The war, waged with U.S. aid, will become a focus of Saudi critics’ concern.
- June: Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, is named Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, replacing his cousin Mohammed bin Nayef after rising to minister of defense in January.
2018
- Summer: Stanford explores a partnership with MbS Tech, the Prince Mohammed bin Salman College for Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technologies.
- Summer: Stanford’s Center for Professional Development (SCPD) develops a training program for members of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund, the state-owned investment agency. SCPD plans to provide another program in 2019.
- Early October: International outcry after journalist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi is killed at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, on what the CIA comes to believe were the Crown Prince’s orders.
- Mid-October: MBS Tech collaboration ends due to a lack of faculty interest at Stanford, according to a spokesperson.
- December: MIT report recommends against cutting ties with Saudi Arabia following a review in the wake of Khashoggi’s death.
2019
- Mid-April: President Trump vetoes Congressional effort to end U.S. support for Saudi-led war in Yemen.