Why the world’s richest man and the CEO of the most valuable company met with Saudi officials

Saudi Arabia is deepening its collaboration with American tech firms in the artificial intelligence sector, unveiling a series of significant joint ventures valued in the billions. This initiative comes as Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman embarks on his first visit to the United States in several years, aiming to establish the kingdom as a leader in AI. During a recent investment forum in Washington, Humain, an AI company supported by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, announced partnerships with major American technology players, including xAI, Cisco, AMD, and Qualcomm. The kingdom is focused on strengthening its economic ties with the U.S. while transitioning away from an oil-dependent economy. For American companies, Saudi Arabia presents a solution to three critical challenges in AI development: ample funding, available land, and affordable energy. At the event, Elon Musk revealed that xAI will collaborate with Humain to build a massive 500-megawatt data center in Saudi Arabia, marking xAI’s first large-scale facility outside of the U.S. This data center will also serve as the deployment site for xAI’s Grok chatbot across the kingdom. Musk emphasized the importance of combining advanced AI models with efficient computing at the announcement, stating, "The future of intelligence will be engineered through massive and efficient compute combined with the most advanced AI models." The data center will utilize chips from Nvidia, whose founder, Jensen Huang, participated in the event alongside Musk and Saudi Arabian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdullah Alswaha. As part of the discussions, Alswaha confirmed plans for a 100-megawatt data center for Amazon Web Services, which aims for a long-term goal of one gigawatt, also supported by Nvidia’s technology. AWS has pledged to deploy and manage up to 150,000 AI accelerators in Riyadh, addressing the pressing demand for space and energy in the rapidly expanding AI sector. The partnership with Saudi Arabia is also pivotal for Crown Prince bin Salman’s efforts to rehabilitate his image in the U.S., following his controversial past. On his visit, he announced an ambitious investment plan, committing $1 trillion to the United States, significantly up from a previously stated $600 billion. The surprise announcement caught even President Trump off guard, showcasing the growing economic ties between the two nations.