Saudi Arabia's ambitious push into artificial intelligence took center stage this week as tech industry leaders converged on Riyadh for a major investment forum that highlighted growing international collaboration in AI development.
The U.S.-Saudi investment forum on May 13 brought together an impressive lineup of technology executives, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Their attendance underscored the growing importance of Saudi Arabia as a source of capital and potential partner for American tech companies.
The high-profile gathering coincided with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's launch of Humain, a new AI company operating under the kingdom's Public Investment Fund (PIF). Announced just a day before the forum, Humain will serve as the central vehicle for Saudi Arabia's AI strategy and investments, offering a comprehensive range of services including next-generation data centers, AI infrastructure, cloud capabilities, and advanced AI models.
"Humain will contribute to empowering and enhancing capabilities in the development and delivery of artificial intelligence applications and solutions at the local, regional, and international levels," according to Saudi officials. A key focus will be creating a powerful multimodal Arabic large language model specifically designed to serve users within Saudi Arabia and across the broader Middle East.
The investment forum produced tangible results, with President Trump securing a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the United States. Among the agreements signed were AI-focused deals, including arrangements for Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices to supply semiconductors to Humain for data center projects.
This gathering reflects Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 program, which aims to diversify the kingdom's economy beyond oil. American tech companies have increasingly looked to the PIF as a source of capital, with firms like Google and Salesforce recently engaging in AI-focused collaborations with the fund. The Saudi data center market is projected to grow from $1.33 billion in 2024 to approximately $3.9 billion by 2030, driven by initiatives like Humain and strategic partnerships with global technology companies.