Canadian artificial intelligence firm Kohia is partnering with Saudi-backed startup Humane as Ottawa expands its investment ties with the Gulf and seeks to diversify away from the United States.
The companies said in a joint statement that under the agreement, Humane will designate at least 50 megawatts of dedicated AI computing power to support Cohere’s next-generation infrastructure models.
This expansion will be operational by the end of 2027, with further capacity expansion expected over the next five years.
Thursday’s announcement was made during Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Saudi Arabia. It will be the former central bank chief’s third visit to the Gulf, part of a broader effort to strengthen trade and investment ties with the region and other partners amid trade tensions with the United States and threats from President Donald Trump.
These initiatives include up to $50 billion in investments from the UAE in sectors such as energy, AI logistics and mining.
Canada’s International Trade Minister Manidhar Sidhu told Reuters in January that Canada wants to attract investment in liquefied natural gas. He also told the outlet that Adnoc’s international investment arm, XRG, is considering a natural gas project in Canada.
Gulf countries are investing heavily in AI to take advantage of the growing demand for computing power. G42, a UAE-based AI company, has focused on delivering AI and cloud computing in sectors ranging from energy and finance to health.
Qatar recently launched its own AI champion, Qai, aimed at infrastructure investment through a sovereign wealth fund. In January, Doha entered into a strategic partnership with Canada to accelerate two-way investments across AI, quantum computing, defense and other sectors.
Humane, which is backed by Riyadh’s state-run Public Investment Fund, has signed several deals with technology companies since its founding last year.
The AI startup is part of Saudi Arabia’s ambition to emerge as an AI center under the Vision 2030 program.
“The fact that Cohere has selected Humain for its first significant international AI computing deployment outside of North America highlights the strength of the AI infrastructure we are building and our ability to support the research and development of next-generation models,” Humain CEO Tariq Amin said in a statement.
Canada has made a unique push to build global AI through a new national strategy to support AI literacy and build a foundation for Canada’s sovereign AI.
Meta announced Wednesday that it is building its first data center in Canada. The 1-gigawatt facility in Alberta will cost about $9 billion and take two to three years to build.
Once completed, it will be Meta’s 33rd data center overall. Meta plans to spend $125 billion to $145 billion on AI infrastructure and related spending this fiscal quarter. Collectively, the four largest U.S. hyperscalers plan to spend $700 billion on AI this year.
