Jeddah: As part of a broader drive to become a global AI powerhouse, Saudi Arabia is bolstering its artificial intelligence ambitions with the launch of Humain, a flagship initiative backed by public investment funds.
With over $40 billion allocated to AI-related investments under Vision 2030, the Kingdom has expanded its infrastructure, developed global technology partnerships and established itself as a hub for advanced AI applications in the Middle East and beyond.
“Artificial intelligence has become a strategic priority in order to strongly align with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's economic transformation goals and strengthen governance,” Youssef Saidi, economic expert and researcher at the Economic Research Forum, told Arab News.
He added that the Kingdom's AI strategy aims to position the country as a global AI leader by the end of the decade.
“Saudi Arabia is leveraging AI to drive innovation and economic growth in a variety of areas, including healthcare, finance and logistics, and help the country move towards a knowledge-based economy. Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in AI research and development to become a regional leader in this sector,” he added.
Humain's release
Humain, which is entirely owned by PIF, was launched in May by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, developing an advanced Arabic model and establishing Saudi Arabia as a global leader in AI infrastructure and innovation.
The initiative is expected to support local innovation, develop intellectual property and attract global AI talent and investment.
“Humain will provide one of the world's most powerful multimodal Arabic models, advanced AI tools, and one of the next generation of data centers,” Saidi said.
He added: “Humans are expected to contribute to the Saudi Arabia's AI ecosystem by promoting human-centric AI innovation and encouraging the design of ethical, inclusive, transparent and accountable AI systems.”
The company aims to enhance human capabilities, improve quality of life and address real-world challenges related to Saudi society. Its focus extends to strategic sectors such as energy, healthcare, manufacturing and financial services.
Building talent
To ensure long-term sustainability in the AI sector, Saudi Arabia also prioritizes talent development and creates an attractive environment for global expertise.
Speaking to Arab News, Yaseen Ghulam, Associate Professor of Economics and Director of Research at Riyadh-based Al Yama University, said the Kingdom aims to train 20,000 data and AI experts by 2030 through investor-friendly regulations and public-private partnerships.
He cited initiatives such as the Athka AI Olympiad and promoted the AI training program as a major contributor to public education and skill development. “Microsoft, Huawei, Accenture, Atomcamp and Oracle have also established AI academy programs,” added Ghulam.
He adds that the kingdom has gained global traction as a destination for skilled professionals, ranking third in the world for AI employment growth, with women leading the penetration of skills.
“This country, along with additional incentives, is 20% more AI experts than the global average,” he said.
Technology Partnership
Saudi Arabia's AI ambitions are strengthened by collaborations with global tech giants, particularly in semiconductors and advanced computing.
“Nvidia and AMD, two major players in the Graphic Processing Unit market, play a key role in the development of AI infrastructure in Saudi Arabia,” Saidi said.
He said Nvidia has partnered with the Kingdom to build an AI factory equipped with Grace Blackwell supercomputers, predicting a capacity of 500 megawatts. “The partnership between Saudi Arabia and NVIDIA aims to establish hyperscale AI data centres, enabling Saudi Arabia to train and deploy sovereign AI models on a large scale,” the research fellow added.
Nvidia is also working with Saudi Arabia's data and artificial intelligence agencies to train thousands of developers in accelerated computing and AI.
Saidi highlighted the key role of global high-tech giants, such as the sophisticated microdevice of California-based semiconductor companies in supporting Saudi Arabia's AI ecosystem and driving the digital transformation agenda.
“AMD has invested up to $10 billion to deploy 500 megawatts of AI computing power over the next five years, and is working with Saudi Arabian organizations to develop an AI enterprise platform to support digital transformation across the industry.
Strategic Edge
Ghulam pointed to several factors that position the Kingdom as a strong global AI candidate, including its recognition as a global leader in the sector's government strategy in the 2024 Global AI Index.
“The country has great advantages in hosting data centers and training AI models due to its strategic location, financial potential, excessive energy, expansion of the private sector and driving digitalization,” he said.
The Kingdom has over 240 AI-focused companies, with its AI patent portfolio having increased five times since 2019. Large investments in digital infrastructure also enhance global connectivity and improved AI dataset capabilities.
Ghulam added that Saudi Arabia has one of the region's most powerful AI-related physical infrastructure footprints, with 10 supercomputers and the most colocation data centres in the Middle East.
“Humain's Arabic AI model is expected to serve more than 450 million people worldwide who speak Arabic all over the world,” Ghulam said.
Basic work is underway, and Gram said the kingdom has set an ambitious benchmark for the next few years.
“Saudi Arabia aims to become one of the top 15 AI reserves by 2030, and has invested heavily in energy, data centers, semiconductors and connectivity,” he said.
He added that the Kingdom's official AI spending commitments (both current and forecast) outweighs the commitments of the US and China.
“Humain plans to build a data center capacity of 1.9 gigawatts by 2030 and work with Nvidia to ship cutting-edge GPUs to Saudi Arabia,” he concluded.
