A '123 Agreement' — named for Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, 1954 — is the legal framework required before the US can transfer civilian nuclear reactors, fuel, technology or safeguards cooperation to another country. The US-Saudi deal gives American companies a central role in developing Saudi Arabia's nuclear infrastructure and could eventually include a domestic uranium enrichment facility, if a joint US-Saudi feasibility study finds it commercially viable. For Saudi Arabia, nuclear power promises to diversify electricity generation away from oil, freeing more crude for export; for the US, it opens major sales opportunities for firms like Westinghouse.

West Asia already has one nuclear-armed state (Israel) and one on the threshold (Iran); a Saudi enrichment capability, absent the Gold Standard's restrictions, raises proliferation-cascade concerns. Then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2018 that the Kingdom would pursue nuclear weapons if Iran did, and critics argue the more permissive Saudi deal — compared to the stricter 2009 US-UAE agreement — could set a weaker regional precedent just as US-Iran tensions escalate.