Per the article, they started to change policy a bit after some of the groups they were sponsoring started attacking the monarchy:
Astonishingly, the attacks of 9/11 had little effect on the Saudi approach to religious extremism, as diplomats and intelligence officials have attested. What finally changed royal minds was the experience of suffering an attack on Saudi soil. In May 2003, gunmen and suicide bombers struck three residential compounds in Riyadh, killing 39 people. The authorities attributed the attacks to al-Qaeda, and cooperation with the U.S. improved quickly and dramatically.
Per the article, they started to change policy a bit after some of the groups they were sponsoring started attacking the monarchy:
And they murdered Kashoggi in what year?
The response to that was to invite them to invest in a whole bunch of tech startups
Right. We reward them no matter what they do.
Only 39 people? That’s like, one month’s worth of mass shootings in the US /s